MOVIE REVIEW: Never Let Me Go

I'm not going to lie...I received Never Let Me Go from Netflix just before Christmas, and I didn't watch it until last night.  I'm not sure why!  I put it in my Netflix queue because it sounded interesting.  Here is how Netflix described it:

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel, this sci-fi drama from director Mark Romanek is centered on thirtysomething Kathy (Carey Mulligan), who reflects on her time spent at Hailsham, an English boarding school, alongside classmates Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield). Born for an unusual reason, the three struggle with their destiny and their love triangle. Charlotte Rampling plays headmistress Miss Emily.

For whatever reason, I just didn't feel compelled to watch until I decided to bring it with me on my work trip to Orlando. I knew I would have an evening to myself in my hotel room with nowhere to go and no one to see, so I figured I'd make a movie out of it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the film as well!

Never Let Me Go begins on the premise that in medical breakthroughs have allowed the life span of humans to move past 100 years old by the year 1952.  From there, you are brought to Hailsham school, where an entire student body of children, including Kathy, Ruth and Tommy grow up, believing that they are special. There are stories that keep them from ever wandering outside of the school grounds, and their lives become so intertwined because Hailsham is all they ever know.  It isn't until their new teacher, Miss Lucy, shares with her class that their sole purpose will be to "give donations" of their vital organs once they've become adults.

From there, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy begin to have a tenuous relationship as Ruth and Tommy begin a relationship, while Kathy also has feelings for Tommy.  After their time at Hailsham is over, the three are sent to live at a cottage.  One day, they all take a trip with some of the others staying at their cottage because they believe Ruth's "possible," or the woman she is cloned from, works in the town.  Meanwhile, Kathy decides to volunteer as a carer - someone who cares for those giving donations, which distances her from Ruth and Tommy for some time. 

It isn't until Kathy happens to be caring for someone at the same hospital as Ruth that their relationship is rekindled.  At this point, Ruth has already given two donations and is fairly weak.  However, she wants to take a trip with Kathy to visit Tommy and visit the beach near his rehabilitation center.

There have been rumors of "deferrals" for couples who are in love wherein they are given a few year reprieve from giving donations in order to be together.  During her visit with Tommy and Kathy, Ruth apologizes for never giving them the chance to be together and suggests that they apply for a deferral.  Tommy and Kathy decide to apply, all the while still grappling with the reality that their lives will always have an expiration date.

I won't give away the ending, but trust me - it's a powerful one.  My very favorite line of the entire movie comes at the very end:

"What I'm not sure about is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."

That is the biggest take home message for me with this movie.  It really made me reflect on how I live my life.  I don't think about the fact that my days are and always have been numbered, but had I been in a situation like theirs, it would constantly on my mind.  But my days are numbered.  The people in this movie made the most of every single day knowing that one day they would "complete."  Most of us don't - I sure know I don't and wish that I was more mindful of this.

The acting was also incredibly impressive.  I don't usually find child actors much to talk about, but the first third of the move was acted by some really great child actors.  The girl who played a young Kathy looked like Carey Mulligan as a child!  Not only that, but Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield gave incredibly heart-felt performances.

While this movie was billed as a sci fi movie, it wasn't an action sci fi movie that most of us are used to.  It isn't dystopian, and has more elements of drama and romance than anything else.  It really hit me at my core, and got me thinking about life quite a bit.  If that sounds like your kind of movie, I highly recommend it!   

I give it a four out of five stars.

MOVIE REVIEW: Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer is a movie that I'd only heard of from flipping through the streaming movie options on Netflix.  However, when I was traveling back from visiting family over the holidays with my fiance, we stumbled upon this Best Movies Off Radar 2014 article by Rotten Tomatoes staffers, and it was on the list.  Their description was enough to put it on our "to watch" list.  We forgot about it for a couple of days and then while searching for something to watch on Netflix, boom!  there it was!  Needless to say, we didn't pass up the chance to watch it, and I am glad we didn't.

Snowpiercer begins with a little back story.  In 2014, Earth is going through terrible climate conditions, with the climate heating up to the point where the world's governments decide to spray a chemical in the air to help regulate temperatures.  The problem is, this chemical blocks all heat from the sun whatsoever, and throws the Earth into a perpetual winter.  We're talking tundra winter here.  The only human survivors are the people who were lucky enough to be aboard a perpetual-motion engine train that is on a track such that it circles the globe once every 365 days.  The people on board are separated by class, with the most elite at the front of the train, and the lower classes in the tail.  The elite live and eat like kings while the lower class lives in squalor and eats gelatinous protein bars rationed out to them.

We meet our main character, Curtis (played by Chris Evans of Captain America fame), in the year 2031, and he has plans for a rebellion in which the lower class breaks through the length of the train and take control of the engine from Mr. Wilford - the creator of the train.  Their initial efforts at breaking through the first gate are successful, at which point they break out Namgoong Minsu (Song Kang-ho), the man who built the security system on the train and their best chance of getting through all the gates, and his daughter Yona (Go Ah-sung).  They meet many foes along the way, and the movie breaks into a lot of gratuitous violence.  At the very end there is a moment that I would call a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory moment - you'll have to watch to see what I mean. 

The cast is also great, with appearances by Chris Evans (Captain America), John Hurt (Harry Potter), Allison Pill (Newsroom), Octavia Spencer (The Help), Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin), Tilda Swinton (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), Ed Harris (Pollock) and more.

Overall, I found the premise really interesting, and for people who like the dystopian genre, it's worth seeing.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.