Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go is a survival drama with an intriguing premise and eerie atmospherics characteristic of a classic horror film. The plot revolves around a mother (Halle Berry) and her two children, Nolan (Percy Daggs) and Samuel (Anthony B Jenkins). They are in a jungle as the last few survivors in what looks like a post-apocalyptic world. The only way for them to get food for survival is to tie themselves onto a rope with one end strongly bound to the foundation of their house. If they break the tie, it will evoke some evil spirit in the jungle. So each time they head out to the wilderness, where evil lurks in the shadows, they tell one another, “Never let go.”
It is the good old M Night Shyamalan-style set up, employed in many films, including one as recent as his daughter Ishana Shyamalan’s The Watchers. Despite the familiarity of the story, the film is still gripping enough initially, thanks to some impressive worldbuilding from Aja and convincing turns from the three leads.
There is a terrific dinner table scene somewhere in the middle where the mother and one of her kids disagree on how to keep food on the table. The mother argues that they have no option but to kill their dog for their own survival. However, one of her children does not easily relent to her demand. Never Let Go does not really test the full gamut of the brilliant performer that Halle Berry is. It veers more towards the Gothika category than Monster's Ball because even her excellent performance is not enough to fully salvage the film. But the kids are indeed revelatory.
Aja deserves some plaudits for drawing such a convincing reaction from young Percy Daggs in the dinner table scene. Anthony B Jenkins also delivers a convincing performance. They both act like they understand the assignment, which is somewhat remarkable given their tender age. And even the dog ‘acts’ in a couple of scenes, such as one fraught with nail-biting tension. It is challenging for a filmmaker to make children and animals act. To give credit where it is due, Aja gets the difficult part right alright.
However, he fails to exert the same level of control over the storytelling as in one part of his direction. Soon, the film goes off the rails big time and becomes preposterous. It soon becomes a crackpot of an exercise, like watching a dog running around in circles trying to catch its own tail but to no avail.
As the film starts to untie the knots literally and figuratively, it is almost as if it does not know where to go or how to go about it. The title Never Let Go becomes a disclaimer for the audience to somehow cling onto their seats while retaining whatever little sense of anticipation that remains in them. Which is a pity, really. Why? Because the film has some real potential to be a terrifying parable about social isolation. And also because it has themes with great potential, such as the importance of maternal care in the upbringing of children, crisis management, and the manifestation of grief as a symbol of evil.
The film fails to make full use of these thematic elements because of its preoccupation with beguiling and surprising you at every turn. The filmmaker hurries through the third act of the film, never really giving you enough time to process the events unfolding on screen. As a result, you have to look really deep to find a film with coherence in there somewhere. And while it is not entirely incoherent, the payoff leaves a lot to be desired.
Director: Alexandre Aja
Cast: Halle Berry, Percy Daggs, Anthony B Jenkins
(This story originally appeared on Cinema Express)