Never Let Me Go (2010)

Never Let Me Go was lovely. I don't want to spoil it - more for those who plan to read the novel. The novel keeps you in the dark longer than the film and that mystery is half the fun of the book.

I enjoyed the novel a great deal, and narratively, the movie stayed fairly close to the source material. Thematically, it strayed quite a bit. The film decided to focus entirely on the love triangle between its three central characters. This was a wise decision. Everyone understands the desire to have time with the person you love. It's in the novel but it IS the film and it changes the characters in subtle ways that allows them to be better understood by the audience. 

Keira Knightly and Andrew Garfield were unbelievably good. Carey Mulligan was also quite good, but hers was an understated performance that did not scream to be noticed the way the others did. The visual style was perfect. The subtlety throughout fantastic. I hate to talk in cryptics, but lots of people have an issue with this film. They don't understand why the characters do not run away. I think it is a valid point considering the movie as a stand alone film. This issue is addressed in the novel, and with an eye toward the answer, you can feel it in the film. But I suspect it's only there for the novel readers. Nonetheless, It's a lovely looking film with fantastic performances. I would recommend reading it first, but I believe it's a film worth seeing either way.

The Edge of Love (2008)

Sigh. The Edge of Love could have been good. It was almost good. Cillian Murphy was in it and he's always good. But it wasn't really good.

Remember the problem I had with The Last Station? This didn't have that problem - I went running to Wikipedia to find out what I didn't know about Dylan Thomas. I learned that Matthew Rhys was great casting. The problem with The Edge of Love is that it isn't about Dylan Thomas or anyone else.

This movie tried to be about Keira Knightly's character and then sort of about her relationship with Sienna Miller's character. But it's also about their relationships with Dylan Thomas, Keira Knightly's relationship with Cillian Murphy, World War II and the impact it had on its soldiers, the morality of adultury, and abortion. Too much. All over.

One of those things as an entire movie could have been really great. The talent is there and some of the scenes, as stand alone scenes, are very engaging. It could have been a love triangle if they had nixed Cillian Murhpy (although, in my biased opinion, he's the best thing about the movie). Or it could have been about the two couples if the film had begun after they were two couples (rather than half a movie spent trying to get Cillian Murphy and Keira Knightly together). Or it could have had nothing to do with Dylan Thomas and been about a woman who marries a soldier and learns she's pregnant while he's away at war only to have him return a different man. Or it could have been about Dylan Thomas and his tulmultous relationship with his wife. It tried to be all and succeeded at none. Alas.

A few random ramblings: Keira Knightly's Welsh accent was distracting. You know who I identify most with the uber-Welsh accent? Aimee-Ffion Edwards who played Sketch on Skins. Sketch was sorta nutzo so I tend to identify really Welsh women with nutzo. Sorry Welsh women. Also - there's an episode of The IT Crowd where Roy goes to dinner with a blind date and she's also nuts and really Welsh. It's British T.V. that's done it to me.

Also, Matthew Rhys was very good. I know him only from Brothers and Sisters and his pretty small role in Titus. So seeing him be a lead and Welsh was a nice change.

Cillian Murphy was also good - but I always think he's fantastic. He's up there on the list of actors I adore with James McAvoy, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jamie Bell. Speaking of which - Keira Knightly has gotten to play oposite three of them now. Lucky her.

So The Edge of Love. Almost good. But not.

Atonement (2007)

Atonement is beautiful and so is James McAvoy. When I learned - way back in the day - that one of my absolute favorite actors would be starring in an adaptation of one of my favorite novels, I was pleased to say the least. I love this film but I often find myself in the minority. The divide seems to occur between people who read the book and people who did not. For those who did not, the feeling of having the rug pulled out from underneath them at the end seems to overwhelm any other opinion they may have had about the film. I hear over and over again "I loved the first half..."

I love it all. I look at it like the novel - three threads of a complicated story. I find it to be one of the most faithfully adapted films I've ever seen. And just as he did with Pride & Prejudice, director Joe Wright fills the screen with lush imagery that can be both breathtaking and heartbreaking. He also has a great ability to depict romance, something that many current romance films lack entirely. Small moments - one hand set on top of another, a palm resting against a cheek - he uses these details to speak volumes and with great success (he for sure has a thing for hands and the power of touch). It's lovely and subtle.

And his long takes. Oh, his long takes. They get a lot of press. When Atonement came out, nearly every piece of writing I read on it centered on the monumental complexity of that shot on the beach. This long take outdoes, by a mile, the few in Pride and Prejudice. It truly is something to behold (and a constant reminder to me why I could not handle working in production). Clearly, I love Joe Wright. I only wish he would stay in this pseudo-genre of sweeping storybook romance. I'm hoping his upcoming film, Hanna, starring Atonement lead Saoirse Ronan, will allow for some of the grandiosity I love from him.

The one thing - and I can't fault any one in particular, it's simply the nature of the story - is in fact the ending. In the novel, it makes sense. Briony, in essence, says, "you've been reading the version of Atonement that I wrote. Not the truth of what really was." On screen, this concept is somewhat jumbled. Almost, "You've been watching an adaptation of the book I wrote, and now you're watching reality" except we're still watching that adaptation. It's a difficult sell and I can understand why having read the novel is almost necessary to warrant that ending for a first time viewer.

That aside, Atonement is a marvelous film. It's downer ending prevents me from watching it again and again as I am so prone to do with movies I love, but nonetheless, it was definitely one of the best films of 2007.