Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go is likely to be in the conversation for several awards come Oscar season.  This ambitious and eloquent piece features excellent acting, restrained and beautiful direction that pairs with a challenging and touching story, which results in strong entertainment for the thinker in all of us.

Carey Mulligan stars as Kathy H., serving as both as a narrator to the film and lead to a story that will level you in its depth of cruel emotion.  Kathy falls in love with Tommy, back during their childhood at the boarding school Hailsham where she, Tommy and Ruth form an uncommon bond that will last a lifetime.

Hailsham is an odd place that confines its students to restricted areas, features routines of discipline and doesn’t take kindly to outsiders.  When newcomer Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins) is assigned to teach, she opens the students eyes and openly questions how the school is run, resulting in her ultimate dismissal.  But what she unveils is an extinction level event for the story that has unfolded to that point in the film.  The balance of the film takes us deeper into the lives of the three students and their love for one another as they discover more about Hailsham, their relationships and their depths of their souls.

This is an incredible love story and while that portion of the film is not unique, it is told in an original fashion with a wildly unique backdrop.  There is poetry in Alex Garland’s script and Isihiguro’s story that is beautifully rendered on screen by Romanek and his fine cast.

Never Let Me Go's characters are always on the outside looking in.

While Mulligan is the standout star, new Spiderman to be Andrew Garfield compels as an off-kilter boy and Keira Knightley’s jealous sexpot is well-rounded.  Romanek’s delicate direction allows the actors to shine and elevates the sometimes bleak material to poetic, artistic expression.  The young actors who play the stars in their younger years, often insignificant, almost throwaway roles, really have an opportunity to flesh out their characters and generally look strikingly similar to their grown counterparts.  Expert casting here.

Romanek, who hasn’t directed since the failed Robin Williams’ creep-fest One Hour Photo, returns with a vengeance here, capturing all the poetry the story can handle while letting the actors perform naturally.  His shifting use of color strikes a strong counterbalance to the material, effectively easing the audience into the painful state where the characters reside.  This is mature filmmaking that will be in year-end awards discussions of some sort; I am confident in that.

The film has elements of science fiction and fantasy, but is deeply rooted in human emotion and interaction.  Kathy, Ruth and Tommy have complicated relationships within their seemingly simple and direct existences.  The overall message is that our time on earth is precious and whom we spend that time with is of paramount importance.  The film also offers up several questions to the viewer that might be revealed through its source material, Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel of the same name.

All in all, Never Let Me Go is not an easy film to digest.  Its neither mainstream nor particularly uplifting, but it is both compelling and thought-provoking and well worthy of your attention.  If they ever left, this serves notice that independent films are back – in a big way.

It was a tough call to decide who to put up on the front page with this article, Jason Bateman or Keira Knightley.  I defaulted with Knightley in the end and suspect that geeks agree.  Fresh off the presses for Monday morning we have a few bits of casting news to pass along to you.  Variety is reporting that both Keira Knightley and Jason Bateman have signed on for new films, though not the same film.  First up is Knightley, who is for some reason of another is dreamy in both the eyes of Hollywood’s glamourous elite and fanboys alike.  Knightley is set for a new Sci-Fi film for Fox Searchlight.  Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) will direct her, in the movie titled Never Let Me Go which is about cloning:

Story revolves around a trio who grew up in a boarding school with no contact or knowledge of the outside world until they discover they are clones grown for the sole purpose of organ donation.

I know that several people wish they could clone the perfect Knightley, so we will just have to see how this movie plays out.  They also report that Knightley is set to appear in a few other films, including The Beautiful and the Damned and Columbia’s remake of My Fair Lady.  We’ll let you know more on all these pics as things develop.

Also, Jason Bateman of Teen Wolf Too fame and last year’s Hancock, is set to put the padlock on the chain in the George Clooney starring film, Up In The Air.

George Clooney stars as a corporate downsizer who is obsessed with collecting frequent flyer miles at the expense of having a life. Bateman will play his boss.

Jason Reitman will direct the comedy.  This is one of many projects that the affable Bateman has lined up at this point.  Titles include, Baster with Jennifer Aniston, State of Play, which stars Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck which drops very soon, Couples Retreat with Vince Vaughn, Extract by Mike Judge and Remarkable Fellows by Joe Carnahan, who also had Jason in the actioner Smoking Aces a few years back. Dude is more in demand than the Beastie Boys were in their hit track “Paul Revere.”  As things progress with the above titles we will keep you informed of their development.

If the rumours are true (and they always are accurate, right?) then it appears that Johnny Depp will take on the lead role in another role based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel.  First Showing tells us:

Johnny Depp’s next acting project will be that of The Rum Diary after he finishes playing The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. The project is based on a Hunter S. Thompson novel where Depp will play Paul Kemp, a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean, known as The Rum Diary.

Captain Jack Sparrow sans make-up. Looks the same to me.

The post goes on to state what the project is about, which includes the writer struggling with LSD, alcoholism, and falling in love with a girl that he shouldn’t.  Said girl is rumored to be either Keira Knightley or Scarlett Johannson.  Umm, out of those two, with a project like this, I am going to have to hope for Scarlett if that is a possibility.  This sounds like another project Depp worked on based on a Hunter Thompson book which was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  That was a trippy film but very good, one that somewhat captured what it is like to actually be on LSD! That’s a hard thing to do.  LSD gets into your skin tissue.  It’s not good for you to take and I wouldn’t recommend it (beyond once, anyway).  This is an intriguing project, the type that the mega-star Depp likes to go for between his bigger projects, so in that sense, I am all for it.  And you?