The Accidental Billionaires, the book The Social Network is based on, was not greatly received either, and that doesn't seem to affect the film's reception. I think most reviewers could separate the two and judge a film on its own merit, and from what I could see in these reviews, Never Let Me Go just doesn't seem to be as good as other contenders.

Uh...Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, named the best novel of 2005 by TIME Magazine, etc.

My issue with the Time Out New York review is the critic spends far too much time trying to convince readers Ishiguro's work is overrated, flawed, etc. He should have recused himself from reviewing this film if he has such an enormous, specific problem with the writer of the source material.

Anywho, it seems this may indeed be out of the BP race. I'm annoyed.

I'm going to continue to predict a nomination, though. I'll start hoping those who do love it are strong enough in number (and passionate enough) to sneak it into the 10-film list.

And there's still acting nominations too. I've yet to read a review, positive or negative, which doesn't heap praise on Garfield, Knightley, and especially Mulligan.

What I meant was that the adaptation seems to stick closely to the source material and adapts its "flaws".

Now what some see as flaws of the book, others see as its brilliance of course.

**** from Ebert.

I'm seeing Never Let Me Go on Saturday. I haven't been this excited for a film in ages.

I think any chance this had at a BP nom has died with the weak box office. It's looking at about a 10k PTA from 26 theaters this weekend... not too good at all.

The Golden Globes need to love this movie. Picture (Drama), Mulligan, Knightley, original score. Give it a second (or first-and-a-half...) wind.

I refuse to believe this is 100 percent out. I just refuse.

The Globes loved Match Point and they loved Charlie Wilson's War...

And they can love this, keep it on people's minds, at least move towards securing Mulligan's Best Actress chances, etc.

Box-office is also really not good. It will struggle to $8-9 million!

Damn your negativity, Lecter!

Movies have made less and still figured into the Oscar race; Venus, for example. Or In the Loop. Or even An Education. I'm not saying NLMG is going to win Best Picture. I just want, say, nominations for Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

Venus, In The Loop, and An Education all had muuuuuch better reviews though. Sorry Gunslinger, but Best Actress is incredibly competitive this year - Best Adapted Screenplay too.... But I won't write-off Best Original Score, if it's any consolation.

http://www.boffo.com/2010/11/variety-sc ... cc342cc0,0

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/awards/fi ... os-Angeles

At least they're still promoting this film. I'm holding out a faint hope for a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination.

I vaguely remember this movie - - what year did it come out?

1953

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046124/

David Poland:

Never Let Me Go – This is the film we’ll be looking back at in 20 years, laughing about how The Academy managed to fail to even nominate it, even in a field of ten. There are some tremendous films this year. And it’s a pretty tough nut to crack when Fox Searchlight has three very special films, each from an auteur, each challenging to audiences.

But seriously… I don’t really care if this is your kind of movie… this film is rigorous, profound, and you overlook it at you own peril. Carey Mulligan gives a performance of restraint and elegance in a role that by its very nature asks more of the actor than all but a couple of other roles out there this year. Andrew Garfield’s best performance of the year is in this film, even though he is excellent in The Social Network as well.

But it’s writers Kazuo Ishiguro and Alex Garland and director Mark Romanek who paint the picture. And the effort makes a forever film. This is one of those rare cases where I truly think that dismissing this film – and not enjoying it is a different issue – is to show your own limitations, not the film’s. Perhaps this is the film that defines what is so sad about human communication at this moment… now, now, now, impulse, impulse, impulse. Is the theme of man’s lurking inhumanity only palatable to some when it is served up in sci-fi or as a dramatized version of history we are so familiar with that we have lost an emotional connection to it?

When the DVD lands – better to see it in a theater if you can – plan to take a few hours, turn off the phone, turn down the lights, and try to let the experience come to you. Open your heart. Let it break. Let yourself consider youth and age and how aware we choose to be.

http://moviecitynews.com/2010/11/15-wee ... -about-me/

TIME named this the third best movie of 2010.

What is childhood, if not the grim fairy tales and horrible lies that adults tell the young? That's the curriculum in the elite English school Hailsham, a kind of Hogwarts for gifted children of a different kind, who are pampered and imprisoned until they grow older and realize their brief destiny. Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley are splendid as the docile, haunted young adults in this science-fiction tale of love and submission, adapted by Alex Garland from a Kazuo Ishiguro novel. Director Mark Romanek cradles his actors in an internal landscape of delicate, worn beauty. A challenge in its subtlety — too muted and fatalistic, perhaps, to please most audiences — the film says that whether we live to be 30 or 90, we all have a death sentence hanging over us. Never Let Me Go is a whispered plea to live and love well, so that long before our time is up, we will truly have reached completion. That way, we can live forever.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packa ... 60,00.html

Full list:

Toy Story 3
Inside Job
Never Let Me Go
Life During Wartime
The Social Network
Rabbit Hole
Wild Grass
Green Zone
Waiting for 'Superman'
Four Lions

I really enjoyed Never Let Me Go, but it has no chance of getting on my 2010 top ten list.