A SCARY VISION OF THE FUTURE : "NEVER LET ME GO"

I want to get one thing out of the way straight off the bat; neither the characters nor the setting in this film (and the book it was based on) have anything whatsoever to do with the orient. It was written, however by Kazuo Ishiguro, Japanese writer of great renown and Booker prize winner (for his acclaimed novel Remains Of The Day). It is something in the way the whole book is written that makes me put the film in the “mythical orient”; it is not so much something concrete but an emotion, something in the air, in its whole state of being. Plus, as you know, the Japanese are the masters of sci-fi and things like alternative futures and dystopias; so just based on the subject matter, I think Never Let Me Go is in the right category…
Imagine a world were cancer is a distant dream. Human life expectancy is now in the low three-figure digits, sickness and pain are all but eradicated. Sounds like paradise? It may be for some… But for all the other people on the planet to benefit from these great advances, some must suffer, they must die very young, and get no more than a look into the wonderful things life has to offer… Never let me go is the stories of these people in this dystopia; we follow their lives, loves, dreams and ultimately their deaths as we are faced with some ethical and moral questions that we very well may need to ask ourselves if not now, sometime in the not terribly distant future…
I don’t want to give too much of the story away. The one problem I had with the film was that it spared the viewer the emotional impact of “realization” (You will have noticed that I have obviously concealed something from you in the previous paragraph). The book starts like a completely different genre; a period piece. You have an inkling something is not as it should be and the truth is not openly uttered until the middle of the book. Until that point you only have hints and clues and a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach coupled with the phrase “It couldn’t be… Could it?” Now, fair is fair, it would be tough to give that kind of suspense and surprise in a film… So what the film does is just cut to the chase straight off the bat and take the story from there. Within five minutes you will have a good idea what the second rather murky paragraph was all about. And I simply have to comment the genius and originality of the Kazuo Ishiguro’s story; it is one of those topics that we push to the backs of our minds now, but they are there, sitting waiting… We very well may have to face up to them some day. The things I’m talking about are not pleasant; but then again adult life sometimes has very little to do with what you find pleasant and what you don’t…
Artistically the film was good. Even though for me personally the brilliance of the book overshadowed the film slightly, I can’t actually fault the film either. The young cast made up of Keira Knightly, Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, The Imaginarium of Docor Parnassus) and Carey Mulligan (An Education) are faultless in their performances. Never Let Me Go takes place in an alternative reality very similar to yet completely distinct from our own and I have to say that the air of eeriness and “something is not quite right” is well rendered. My only criticism would be that – and I do admit I may be a touch biased – the book struck me terribly and really affected me deeply. With the film, although it is intense in pieces the inevitable love story has been given a little more weight than in the novel and the “condition” of our heroes does not strike one as clearly as one might have expected… Nevertheless, even if it is the “light” version in comparison to the book you will be struck by it and it will give you a lot to think about… Yes indeed, medical advances can be scary things…

A STORY WE ALL REALLY SHOULD KNOW - THE STORY OF THE SOCIAL NETWORK!

For whatever reason, I very rarely seem to review films that are actually on in the cinemas. That is because my job dictates that I watch a large number of films a couple of months after they are in cinemas. I don’t like seeing films twice (except for the classics naturellement) and thus my blog ends up being slightly “willy nilly” and all over the place – and also largely dependant on my mood at the time. However, I will break with tradition this week and discuss something that is actually on / or was on very recently – David Fincher’s film “The Social Network”. It’s a fascinating idea of course I mean Facebook is pretty much the phenomenon that defines our generation. Even not being on it is considered a sort of statement… Naturally, Mark Zuckerberg – the youngest billionaire of all times – is a valid point of interest. And his story is interesting to say the very least…

It’s a story a lot of us know somehow but let’s run through the basics again. Mark Zuckerberg was a highly successful student at Harvard University. He is a genius computer programmer even if not the most popular student on campus. He then comes up with the idea of a social networking website or allegedly he steals the original idea from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss we don’t know and I don’t want to comment as it was part of a very VERY large lawsuit and the film doesn’t particularly comment on it either. Suffice to say that Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg – of whom I had heard of but funnily enough never seen in anything) with the financial aid and support of his best (and only) friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield – remember I told you about him in the Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus). As we all know, the whole thing was a HUGE hit and began to grow, attracting the attention of many people, among them Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake – now I don’t know which camp you’re on and I’m not a fan but credit where it’s due the guy CAN act). Sean Parker is a bit of a loose canon with great ideas, charm and charisma. Mark and he seem to be almost made for each other and Sean is very soon part of the company. There is one person he doesn’t charm however – the company’s C.F.O and main founder Eduardo. That is where things start getting… A little awkward…

Now, the film is, I think, brilliant. Then again, I’m biased – I think the director David Fincher is brilliant (Fight Club, Zodiac and Seven are among my favorite films of all times). I am also a healthy addict of Facebook so who am I to complain? The film is honest; our hero Mark Zuckerberg is by no means a “huggable” character. Jesse Eisenberg does a brilliant job of portraying the socially awkward but amazingly intelligent Zuckerberg. Plus Andrew Garfield is growing on me – kinda like a rash. This film is a very good example of why I love true stories – films about real life. The characters are not “perfect” they act emotionally; sometimes they make bad decisions… I know that these guys have achieved fame and fortune and now live lives far beyond most of our means; HOWEVER, the film is completely approachable for this reason. And this is also why it’s different from the 10 a penny “American Dream” movies out there. The film is REAL. Not just in the sense that it is a real story but emotionally real and grounded and easy to relate to. But then again there is nothing I loathe more in a film than “perfect” characters which is why a) I’m slightly biased b) 15 minutes into the film I had a broad grin all over my face and was thinking “Ok, this is gonna be interesting.

What else? Well, you would be wrong to think this film is going to be very “geeky” and “computery” and incomprehensible. Yes, Facebook is an online phenomenon but it is also a social phenomenon that has taken over the world in case you hadn’t noticed. It is about people. In this case, specifically about the people that created a website that is a concrete part of our lives… Which is why on one level, it can be said that one may consider knowing this story part of basic general culture.