There are many ways to think of Isolationism from the way it is portrayed in Cast Away where a plane crash takes a person away from the rest of the world, I am Legend where it is the result of a virus or even in the way it is done in Last Man on Earth where there is literally no one else on the planet. With Never Let Go, this is portrayed in both a familiar and also a new way.
Directed by Alexandre Aja (Crawl, Horns), Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) live with their mother (Halle Berry) in a secluded cabin deep in the woods after an evil has taken over the planet. As far as they know, they are the only ones that have not succumbed to is power as the cabin they live in is blessed. If they do go outside, they must be attached to a rope that is attached to the cabin, which keeps them safe, but once they start to run out of supplies, survival becomes risky alongside Nolan questioning the reality around him.
One of the big positives here is the acting. Except for some sporadic scenes, Berry, Jenkins, and Daggs IV are the only characters, with Berry doing what she does as a Best Actress winner. However, I want to give kudos to Jenkins and Nolan; for their ages and experience levels, they both had incredible performances, showing the evolution of their characters as the story progressed. The cabin itself functions as a character as well in the way it worked in Snowpiercer, and the way it is shot really put me in the middle of the action as I felt the isolation around them.
I liked the premise, which fills Never Let Go’s one hundred minutes very well. It kept me interested by featuring little clues throughout the movie which may help for the final reveal. Keeping that in mind, the ending could have been better since it left many of the people I was able to screen this film with trying to figure out what happened. Did I hate this film? No, but it could have been better, so I will recommend watching it to watch at home on a premium cable channel like HBO.
Comments