Review : 'Sex and the City 2' (2010)

I loved watching Sex and the City as a young adult. I watched Carrie and the gang Jimmy Choo their way through almost 100 episodes of love, friendship and sex and then I watched the first film and felt the love, friendship and (less) sex all over again. These over-privileged women somehow manage to feel just like us, right?

Rest assured that I went in to Sex and the City 2 slightly unsure of where else the story could possibly go following the perfect Hollywood ending of the first, but a fan of the series nonetheless.

Sex and the City 2 was the worst film I saw in 2010 and may be one of the most obnoxious, offensive, unlikeable films I've ever seen. Gay? Muslim? Female? Male? Vaguely human? Prepare to be personally offended.

Poor Carrie Bradshaw. She married the man she was always meant to be with at the end of the first film and they moved to their wonderful perfect apartment (Mr Big is obviously head of Skynet to be able to afford it, but whatever). 2 years on and UGH he is so annoying! Isn't he Carrie! He just, like, eats Chinese food NOT OFF A PLATE and sits around and it's almost as if he's COMFORTABLE in his 12 YEAR RELATIONSHIP and doesn't feel like he CONSTANTLY HAS TO BE ON HIS BEST BEHAVIOUR. A low point is reached when Big buys Carrie (get this, the pig) a giant flatscreen TV. ARSEHOLE! Carrie, anguished, can't believe he hasn't bought her a piece of jewellery and just, like, can't take it any more. So she goes to take some time out. Does she go to a friend's house? Or just hang out in a cafe? Or go and stay with her parents? No. Not our Carrie. She goes to her old apartment. Yes, that's right, Carrie and Mr Big have their gigantic 5th Avenue palace AND Carrie's hip old apartment.

Meanwhile, Miranda finds that being a lawyer sucks. So she quits. Just like that. How will your family afford stuff like your mortgage and food and running a car and no doubt sending your child to private school and Magda's wages, Miranda? Oh, no need to worry about that? OK cool, thanks.

Charlotte has big problems. She doesn't work and has a full-time nanny for her 2 children. But the nanny couldn't stop one child getting a bit of food on her couture. CHARLOTTE YOU POOR BITCH! And as if that wasn't painful enough, the nanny is REALLY HOT!

Samantha is taking dog hormones or something in order to "trick my body in to feeling younger" and ward off the menopause. Miranda quips that she's tricking her body in to feeling thinner. OH HA HA HA HA HA coz all the Sex and the City girls aren't a SIZE 8!

The less said about the opening....skit?....involving a portrayal of a gay wedding as the sort of sketch that Kenny Everett would go, "no-one will buy this, it's a bit OTT" at, the better.

The girls all fly off to Abu Dhabi to get away from all the hardship in their lives and get to stay in suites that cost thousands of dollars a night, complete with manservant. Carrie's is PROPER BRITISH RESPECTED ACTOR Raza Jafri in a role which sees him as a man who only gets to see his wife every few months due to his low pay. Carrie then sees how spoilt she's been and feels terrible, realising that with all her wealth, nice husband and comfortable career she should be grateful and has a complete turnaround. OR does she just think "me and that Asian are both separated from our spouses *sigh* we're, like, the same"? Bingo.

Throw in a scene where Samantha shows how liberated she is by screaming "YES I HAVE SEX!" at some Muslims in the street who have dared to look at her because she ripped off her clothes and dropped condoms all over the floor (yes, really) and you have a repugnant waste of 2 and a half hours of my life. Here are some things I could have done in that time : had a singing lesson followed by some lunch....gone for a run and then taken some clothes and books down to a charity shop....written a couple of songs, recorded them and then uploaded them to YouTube...cut myself multiple times....written 10,000 more words on why Sex and the City 2 is a terrible, terrible film.

This is a sequel that remembered to put the original stars in the film, remembered to put them in an exotic location and then forgot to give them any heart whatsoever. This story cannot survive on us going "ooo nice shoes Samantha!", we have to like these people. Not only didn't I like them, I didn't recognise them. And the story does NOTHING! There is NO plot development. Awful awful awful.

Oh, and their empowering rendition of I Am Woman in a karaoke bar made me projectile vomit and my projectile vomit burned through the screen and it looked like the end of Inglourious Basterds.

Review : 'The Human Centipede' (2010)

Did you see Hostel or Saw and go, "imagine if a film was MORE horrific and cruel than this, you'd implode as a viewer!"? When I saw the trailer for The Human Centipede I was deeply disturbed. I read reviews that proclaimed it to be 'sickening', 'harrowing' and 'the most disturbing thing you'll ever see'. What is seen cannot be unseen, I knew that from Audition, which stayed with me for several hours afterwards and which I wouldn't be keen to see again. I viewed the trailer and thought, "oh god, how terrifying". I was creeped out by the (very clever) poster (see first image). The more I imagined about The Human Centipede the worse I felt and after a few horrible dreams there was nothing else for it...I had to see the film for myself.

What followed showed me that if the premise for a film is so horrendous, torturous and truly a fate worse than death, the end result is a tame affair. What my imagination presented was 20 times worse than anything in The Human Centipede. I think sometimes a premise is just too stupid to truly offend.

With a standard horror opening (2 hotties break down on a rainy night and end up getting 'help' at the house of the only psycho in town), the film then goes a way which is at least original. It's certainly a bold story but cannot be stretched to its 91 minute running time. The psycho the girls have stumbled on is a crazed surgeon who "hates human beings" and after 4 minutes in his company I was sure that director Tom Six had made The Human Centipede with a twinkle in his eye (he proclaims the film to be "100% medically accurate" which either makes him a funny prankster filmmaker or a needs-to-be-locked-up mad man). The film is high-camp and anyone who views it as a genuinely terrifying horror is missing the point. The doctor intends to stitch the girls plus a loud Japanese man together, mouth-to-anus to create a single digestive system. Stupid, yes?

Following a laughable escape attempt and the operation itself (surprisingly lacking in any gore...this film doesn't present us with much blood and no poo) there isn't much for the human centipede to do. The doctor makes it walk around on all fours a bit which looks really creepy for about 10 seconds and eventually the front of the centipede defecates in to the mouth of the girl behind, who reacts by unrealistically looking horrified, rather than pulling away really hard, ripping her stitches before vomiting uncontrollably. I think if someone did a poo in my mouth I'd be sick immediately. Hopefully I'll never have to find out if all I'd do would be to look horrified. This scene is the infamous scene in the film and by that time you're just kind of bored. The doctor is by far the most interesting thing on screen and even his self-consciously schlock-horror performance has grown repetitive by the hour mark.

The final act sees the centipede attempt to escape while 2 cops who make Police Squad look like NYPD Blue search the house. The ending is described by a couple of people I know as one of the bleakest things they've ever seen. I don't want to spoil the final image but...it isn't any bleaker than what it's preceded by.  In fact I'd say it's a very low-key, who-cares ending compared to the film's initial promise of shock and terror. Also, again without giving anything away, how the final image comes about is extremely contrived and made me do a smug little eye-roll.

I'm not saying The Human Centipede has failed. As a yukky, original black comedy chiller, a sort of pastiche on the torture porn made popular by Eli Roth et al it succeeds (if a little dull in the middle hour). And for a film called The Human Centipede you never care particularly for any of the humans involved. A few moments where the centipede is left alone and they wordlessly grasp each other's hands are semi-affecting, but never enough to make you take the film seriously. It does however look fantastic. It's very well shot and the stark lines of the house setting make for a distinctive look. How much of this is an accident and how much is down to Six's skill as a director remains to be seen. Time will tell...The Human Centipede II - Full Sequence is out later this year, promising to be 100% medically inaccurate. I, for one, can't wait (to view it for free, ain't paying for this shit).

All in all a bizarre little film that's merits are not in its shocking, disturbing imagery but more in the way that at least an original film that is having a little wink at the audience (no pun intended...ha ha, anus) has been made and recognised. As a piece of horror it doesn't succeed. As a serious chiller it doesn't succeed. But as a high-camp, tongue-in-cheek (PUN!), oddity it does succeed. It has more in common with The Rocky Horror Picture Show than with Audition or Hostel.

Feature : My Academy Award Predictions

Oscar-time! In just over a week the 83rd Academy Awards will be handed out. Even though I shouldn't put too much stock in an awards ceremony that at one time nominated The Towering Inferno as one of the 5 best films of 1974 (shockingly it was beaten by The Godfather Part II) and declared Rocky to be a better film than Taxi Driver, I like to predict winners each year. I especially enjoy guessing who will win things like Best Animated Short when I haven't seen one entrant.

I wonder how many I'll get right in 2011 (I shall bold my prediction)....




Best Picture

127 Hours / Black Swan / The Fighter / Inception / The Kids Are All Right / The King's Speech / The Social Network / Toy Story 3 / True Grit / Winter's Bone

It's too obvious, this is a no brainer (cut to February 27th when I retract that statement).

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) / The Coens (True Grit) / David Fincher (The Social Network) / Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) / David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Would really like to see Fincher get this. I was one of 4 people who adored Benjamin Button.

Best Actor

Javier Bardem (Biutiful) / Jeff Bridges (True Grit) / Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) / Colin Firth (The King's Speech) / James Franco (127 Hours)

Yawn, so obvious. Firth probably deserves it, especially seeing as he and Julianne Moore were the only redeeming features of the disgusting overrated A Single Man last year...but I want to see Franco get the gong. Also, where's Wahlberg's nom for The Fighter? He was brilliant.

Best Actress

Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) / Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole) / Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) / Natalie Portman (Black Swan) / Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

I was really rooting for Nat until I saw the trailer for No Strings Attached. Now I'd rather see Michelle Williams get the award.

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale (The Fighter) / John Hawkes (Winter's Bone) / Jeremy Renner (The Town) / Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) / Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

If Bale doesn't win I think he should scream, "WHAT DON'T YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND!?" during Geoffrey Rush's speech (surely this is a two-horse race?).

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams (The Fighter) / Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech) / Melissa Leo (The Fighter) / Hailee Steinfield (True Grit) / Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

I haven't seen Animal Kingdom, I don't know who Jacki Weaver is and I have no idea what it's even about. So I'm taking her out of the equation for that reason. I think HBC will win but I think Leo deserves it.

Best Original Screenplay

Mike Leigh (Another Year) / Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson (The Fighter) / Christopher Nolan (Inception) / The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg) / The King's Speech (David Seidler)


Well done The King's Speech. Just a question...does Mike Leigh deserve an Oscar nomination for his writing when his films are largely improvised? Or am I just being ignorant?

Best Adapted Screenplay

Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours) / Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) / Loooooooooong list (Toy Story 3) / The Coens (True Grit) / Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini (Winter's Bone)

Even though Sorkin probably has enough West Wing awards I do think The Social Network was an astonishing screenplay.

Best Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon / The Illusionist / Toy Story 3


This one is beyond obvious (although if The King's Speech was nominated in this category it'd probably pip Toy Story 3 to the post) but I'm giving a shout-out to How to Train Your Dragon which I'd have loved as a kid. And adult.

Best Foreign Language Film

Biutiful / Dogtooth / In A Better World / Incendies / Outside The Law

Time for the guess work to begin! I'm opting for Biutiful because I've heard of it.

Best Documentary Feature

Exit Through The Gift Shop / Gasland / Inside Job / Restrepo / Waste Land

I'm leaning towards Exit Through The Gift Shop. Because it's the only one I've seen. Are any of the others any good? Worth a watch? Yes? No?

Best Documentary Short

Killing in the Name / Poster Girl / Strangers No More / Sun Come Up / The Warriors of Qiugang

Well, let me see. Killing in the Name sounds all brutal and gritty, but Strangers No More is romantic and girly sounding. The Warriors of Qiugang has a cool name. Winner.

Best Live Action Short

The Confession / The Crush / God of Love / Na Wewe / Wish 143

Oh come on, has anyone seen any of these? I bet the Academy hasn't bothered. But my vote is going to Wish 143 as it was a significant improvement on Wish 141 and 142. Snigger.

Best Animated Short

Day & Night / The Gruffalo / Let's Pollute / The Lost Thing / Madagascar, a Journey Diary

Let's Pollute sounds fun and really un-PC. Oh I don't bloody know, let's go for The Gruffalo. I like the book. Well, I don't like it, but I have heard of it.

Best Original Score

A.R Rahman (127 Hours) / John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon) / Hans Zimmer (Inception) / Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech) / Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

I really dug The Social Network's score but The King's Speech is nominated...so.

Best Original Song

"Coming Home" (Country Strong) / "I See The Light" (Tangled) / "If I Rise" (127 Hours) / "We Belong Together" (Toy Story 3)

I hate this category and after listening to all 4 songs (it's easier than watching all nominated films, that's for sure) the only song I didn't hate was the 127 Hours one. Man, Country Strong was an appalling film wasn't it?

Best Sound Editing

Inception / Toy Story 3 / Tron : Legacy / True Grit / Unstoppable

What is Unstoppable? Why haven't I heard of it? I'm getting bored now. My bet's going on Tron : Legacy as I like the idea of anything with Tron in the title winning an Oscar. Scorsese has an Oscar. Tron will have an Oscar. Scorsese and Tron will be the same. Also, I don't want Inception to win anything because I didn't like it.

Best Sound Mixing

Inception / The King's Speech / Salt / The Social Network / True Grit

I have never heard of this category before now so it shows how much attention I've paid. How do they even judge who to nominate, let alone who wins? I'm half-death so I don't really care. The King's Speech is nominated, you know the rest.

Best Art Direction

Alice in Wonderland / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 / Inception / The King's Speech / True Grit

Ugh, Inception. Oh, The King's Speech.

Best Cinematography

Black Swan / Inception / The King's Speech / The Social Network / True Grit

Have you noticed I can't be bothered to enter the names of the people nominated anymore? Just the film title will do. Finally, a category I can make an 'educated' decision on. Because of my film 'education'.

Best Make-Up

Barney's Version / The Way Back / The Wolfman

Hel-lo! The Wolfman! It had to make a wolf out of a man! Probably. I vote Barney's Version because it's the closest Paul Giamatti will get to an Oscar he richly deserves.

Best Costume Design

Alice In Wonderland / I Am Love / The King's Speech / The Tempest / True Grit

What the hell is I Am Love?

Best Film Editing

127 Hours / Black Swan / The Fighter / The King's Speech / The Social Network

I think these are all worthy winners and I'd lean towards 127 Hours if it was my decision (which it blatantly should be). But let's face it....it's a board-sweep for The King's Speech. Big deal, the king of England beat stammering...James Franco nearly died in a canyon!

Best Visual Effects

Alice in Wonderland / Harry Potter Part 900 / Hereafter / Inception / Iron Man 2

HA HA, Tron is so terrible it couldn't even get nominated for its visual effects (are we supposed to believe its Sound Editing is better than its Visual Effects?)! Oh...Harry Potter, whatever. I'm sorry I even started this post. I'm ignorant of 90% of what's nominated and I won't stay up and watch it anyway. I only did once in 2005, when A Series of Unfortunate Events won Best Make-Up (I remember it because it turned out to be one of my only correct predictions that year). When I stayed up all night in 2005 it was at a friend's house and his senile old Siamese cat went to sleep in my lap all night. The cat was called Batman.

How many will you get right?

Review : '127 Hours' (2011)

You'd have to have been living down a canyon (hur hur hur) to not know that Danny Boyle's 127 Hours' climax involves James Franco amputating his own arm. Don't let that put you off though. I loved this largely one-man show based on adrenaline-junkie Aron Ralston's book chronicling the 5-and-a-bit days he spent trapped in a canyon, a bolder crushing his right forearm.

We are invited in to Aron's world with fast-paced camera-work, reminiscent of extreme sports videos, as he goes off for a daring weekend in Utah's Canyonland National Park (thanks Wikipedia, you always tell the truth) accompanied with only basic equipment, his camera, not-enough-water and a cheap pocket pen-knife. Most importantly of all he hasn't let anyone know where he's going. Oh Aron, you silly arse. Having hung out with 2 sexy fellow hikers for a couple of hours I knew we were getting close to seeing his fall and the beginning of his nightmare. Here are some of my top fears : heights and falling from them, being trapped, being unable to get hold of anyone when trapped...you get the picture. 127 Hours taps in to many strongly held fears that ordinary people have (not weird people like Mr Sooz who immediately said "I want to go there!" when the credits began to roll) and despite the fact that 80% of the film is spent trapped in the canyon with Aron, the story fair rollicks along (yeah, that's right, it rollicks). It's exhilarating with a plot that has as many twists and moments of jeopardy as a Bourne movie.

I've been a fan of James Franco since seeing him in Freaks and Geeks many years ago. The guy is good looking enough to get by on that alone but is also one of the best young actors around. Whilst Danny Boyle has presented us with a dazzling display of movie-making, the film would be nothing without Franco's tour-de-force, finally allowing him to make his mark as a mainstream leading man and rightfully netting him an Oscar nom. Franco's Ralston is charming, funny, cocky and headstrong and later incredibly vulnerable. Whether he's screaming for help, hallucinating about thirst-quenching thunderstorms or hacking in to his arm with a pound-shop pocket-knife, he is scarily real. All the fantastic film-making in the world wouldn't matter a jot if we didn't like Aron - and we do. I cried girly tears at the end and as I glanced across to the iceberg that is Mr Sooz I noticed he looked half-moved too. He's a sucker for handsome, adventurous men so I'm sure Franco has been in a few of his fantasies since our cinema trip (I don't mind, he needs an outlet).

The relentless pace of Aron's final few hours in the canyon are exhausting and when he finally removes his arm it's not so much disgusting as it is a relief. The worst moments for me were when he was growing more and more dehydrated. Just sitting in the cinema I started longing for an icy cup of Coke (caffeine-free obviously, coz I'm so allergic), such was the power of Boyle's imagery and Franco's parched performance and appearance.

I'd expected 127 Hours to be visceral and frightening but I hadn't expected it to be so human and moving, strange as I knew it to be focused on one man. I highly recommend whether you're squeamish or not. It also taught me that drinking your own wee is probably disgusting. Probably.

Review : 'Love and Other Drugs' (2010)

Having heard about the racy sex scenes in Love and Other Drugs I just had to see it. I'm a sucker for famous people getting all naked and vulnerable on screen ("they're just like us! Only prettier!"). When I heard Christina Ricci showed her rack in Black Snake Moan I couldn't see it fast enough (never mind that I got bored about 20 minutes in). The chemistry between Jake and Anne (who both give fantastic performances) is evident and you totally buy them as a couple, but more on that later.

Love and Other Drugs is the story of 2 20-somethings, one a womanising pharmaceuticals salesman, the other an early-onset Parkinsons sufferer who won't commit. FIREWORKS! PROBLEMS! RESOLUTION! It really is that simple...but with some added Viagra. And that's where my problems are with the film. For a movie where Jake Gyllenhaal shows his really nice bum multiple times and Anne Hathaway shows her big boobs for what seems like 65% of the (10 minutes too long) running time, it all runs very predictably. This is standard emotion-prodding rom-com fare. Commitment-phobes meet, commitment-phobes give in to their growing love, something forces them apart (admittedly this time it's Parkinsons rather than an ex or a job or something), they emotionally reunite (in front of a load of old people). There's even a funny, overweight side-kick for Gyllenhaal to be humorous with.

I know it seems like I'm obsessed with movie-sex, but the film was a little bit like if The Wedding Singer had suddenly had a scene where Drew Barrymore performs really graphic fellatio on Adam Sandler. Shudder. Yeah, not quite like that, but you get the picture.

The comments on America's healthcare system seemed a little out of place too. It was like Love and Other Drugs couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It was sometimes cute, sometimes raunchy, sometimes sad and sometimes political. I personally would have enjoyed a film that focused on the pharmaceuticals business as this was the most interesting aspect for me but as a backdrop for the standard love story it just didn't work. The ending especially is so by-the-numbers that if it wasn't for the 'proper' actors it would have been unbearable schmultz. With Hathaway and Gyllenhaal at the helm it was quite touching but I wouldn't have liked to have seen the same scene played out with some Gossip Girl cast members.

This is a film to rent I think, rather than view at the cinema. A stand-up comic on Twitter said, "I've just seen Love and Other Drugs aka Anne Hathaway's Tits" which is slightly unfair, but not too unfair. And it made me laugh. If there's one thing that I like better than a romantic comedy with terminal illnesses and graphic sex scenes, it's a funny tweet.

Review : 'The Royal Tenenbaums' (2001)

I saw this at my local cinema when it was released and it instantly became a favourite of mine. I wasn't sure of what to expect when I viewed it, the trailer painted it as more of a screwball comedy than it actually is. As a new teenage cinephile (the worst kind) I was blown away by Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. Its look, its story and its retro soundtrack as well as the slightly styalised performances from the awesome cast all served to put the film instantly in to my top 10 list where it has remained now for almost a decade.

Dry as dust and at once hilarious and heart-rending, The Royal Tenenbaums succeeds as the perfect example of a comedy-drama. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson have never acted better as troubled former friends, both now lost in grief/addiction.

I have a relatively masculine taste in cinema but I'm still just a girl so I'm a sucker for a happy ending. The film has quite a bleak tone and perhaps unrealistically everything ends happily, but I believe it completely and wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes things do end well and these characters are so tortured in the cases of the Tenenbaum children and so obnoxious in the case of their father, Royal (played to perfection by Gene Hackman) that they deserve a pleasant resolution.

Favourite scenes include Royal and Chas' face-off in a toy cupboard, Royal being removed from his 'death bed' and the incredibly moving scene where Margot and Richie admit their feelings to 2 of the most stunning songs ever written.

I love Wes Anderson's work but this is far and away my favourite of his films. The closest he's come to bettering The Royal Tenenbaums in my opinion is The Darjeeling Limited (which shares not only tone but also much of the cast...plus Adrian Brody, which always makes things awesome), another touching, unlikely family story.

I've met a lot of people who can't understand why I love The Royal Tenenbaums quite so much, or at all in some cases. And I'm hard pressed to explain exactly why either...maybe it's just a film I saw at the right age in the right frame of mind. Or maybe it's a masterpiece. Whatever the reason, it almost makes me forgive Owen Wilson for You, Me and Dupree. If You, Me and Dupree was a person, I'd knee him square in the nuts.

Review : 'Never Let Me Go' (2010)

When I saw the posters for Never Let Me Go I made a vom-face, expecting a Notebook-style schmultz-fest, wasting the talents of Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan...and starring Keira Knightley (I know, Knightley-bashing, how original). I decided to view it due to it being recommended by someone who said the acting was "excellent", and I love Mulligan and Garfield.


The Notebook this ain't.


Never Let Me Go is a dystopian human tale (based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro - yes, I did have to Google who wrote it) of cloned humans, born only to donate organs once they reach adulthood. In the alternative world presented to us in the film, humans are expected to live past 100 and cancer is something that is no longer an issue. This is at the cost of the clones, who are human in all but their purpose in life and who know they will die after their first couple of donations, maybe making it as far as 4 donations. 


The love story (our 3 leads are in a triangle of sorts...Wiki it if you want to know more, I never fill reviews with plot, I don;t have the patience to type it all out coz I'm so selfish) set against the backdrop of the strangely-sci-fi backdrop in not-too-long-ago-Britain makes for fascinating, heart-breaking viewing. The film deals with both death and love in a way that is completely believable. Director (Googles....) Mark Romanek never for a minute makes you doubt the unlikely premise and the film's muted colours and isolated feel add to the bleakness that is quietly there throughout (not so quietly there as the film nears its climax). 

I'm wary of calling Never Let Me Go depressing. Sad, yes, but not depressing. The characters are not depressed, they've known their fate since childhood and barely resist it. This was one of my only problems with the film (excuse the spoilers) - Kathy, Ruth and Tommy never make an attempt to escape (perhaps they physically can't, I dunno, maybe I didn't watch closely enough, might have been texting or something). As I've said already, these are clones of human beings with human emotions and I can't quite get past the fact that survival instinct didn't kick in. It added to the bleakness that there really is no way out for these guys, that they are destined to grow weaker as more of their organs are taken until they die long before they're 30.


The performances were what made me see the film and they're flawless. I was kind of looking forward to a good old Knightley slag-off, but her vaguely drama-queen character (which I think was purposeful) contrasted well with slighly-oddball Garfield and calm, collected Mulligan. Andrew Garfield's final breakdown was pretty heart-breaking and I shed some Sooz-tears, maybe even had to do a little nose wipe. 


I also have to give a big thumbs up to the score. Eerily low-key, sparingly-used and oddly hopeful, it was pretty perfect. The song the film takes its title from was also moving when used. 

I've seen a few parallels being drawn between Never Let Me Go and The Island, but this is a far superior film and to be honest the films were vastly different. I see where the similarities can be seen but this is not a thriller, we must accept what is going to happen to Tommy, Kathy and Ruth just as they do in order to 'enjoy' it. 

So...Never Let Me Go is a touching, non-mawkish film which although not a walk in the park is far easier to watch than The Notebook. Did I mention I hate The Notebook?