Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Starring: Halle Berry, Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B. Jenkins
Alexandre Aja's Never Let Go is the latest variation on the premise of a figure who has
convinced others that some form of danger lurks outside their sanctuary,
the best version of this plot being Dan Trachtenberg's 10 Cloverfield Lane. Such stories prompt the audience to ask if the threat really is
outside, or if it's actually posed by the person who insists on its
existence, and that's once again the case here.
Young unidentical twins Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) live with their mother (Halle Berry, simply referred to as
"Momma" throughout) in a cabin deep in the sort of verdant woodland
where you might expect to stumble across Ewoks. But the beautiful
surrounds mask a horrific living situation for this family. The twins
have been convinced by their mother that an evil force took over the
world when they were infants. To protect her sons, Momma was forced to
killer their father and her own parents, all of whom had become
possessed by "The Evil." Momma has since devised a system to keep her
family safe, which involves either staying in the cabin, which she
believes is constructed from magic ancient wood that wards off evil, or
leaving the sanctuary while bound to the cabin with a rope. The movie's
title is a command she repeats to her boys.
Momma can see "The Evil" as it takes the form of the family members she
killed, who now resemble the undead ghouls of an Evil Dead movie. Her sons are unable to see any such thing, which Momma
puts down to her possessing a special gift that they have yet to
develop.
Naturally, we find ourselves questioning whether Momma is insane or if
this evil she believes in really exists. While Samuel clings to his
mother's every word, Nolan begins to question her beliefs, especially
when the food begins to dwindle and Momma starts casting hungry gazes in
the direction of the family dog.
Never Let Go boasts two excellent performances from its young stars, and there
are enough suggestions that Aja is just the sort of madman who will
gladly kill a child in one of his movies to keep us worried about Nolan
and Samuel's predicament. Berry however struggles with a character who
is rendered so purposely vague that the actress is unable to get to the
heart of Momma. There are clues and red herrings sprinkled throughout
regarding Momma's past, but they have the effect of making her more of a
plot device than a lifelike character.
As is often the case with films centred on the guessing game of whether
the main character is the protagonist or the antagonist, Never Let Go offers little more for the viewer to invest in. As the story
drags on with its various clues and distractions, we get the niggling
feeling that it's all going to come down to nothing more substantial
than the screenwriters (Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby) tossing a coin to decide how to wrap up their mystery.
By the halfway point the guessing game has grown so tiresome that you
might decide to bail out (if Never Let Go were a novel you might to tempted to turn to the last page), but
then the film delivers a shock that suddenly makes things more
interesting. The story takes a particularly dark turn as it ratchets up
our fears for its young protagonists, and Daggs IV and Jenkins really
get a chance to shine in the final act.
When Never Let Go eventually reveals its truth it stills feel no more
substantial than the toss of a coin however. Aja's most effective films
are those with unambiguous threats - the mutants of his Hills Have Eyes remake, the killer fish of his Piranha reboot, the alligator of Crawl - but without a clearly defined villain to chase his protagonists
here the French filmmaker finds himself out of his depth, unable to
generate scares from a realm beyond the physical.
Never Let Go is in UK/ROI
cinemas from September 27th.
