Halle Berry is back in the spotlight with yet another role that strips her (a bit) of her timeless beauty for the sake of yet another vulnerable, emotionally raw portrayal following Bruised, her directorial debut for Netflix. Our recent in-person interview with the Academy Award winner confirms our suspicions that she, indeed, does not age. Must be nice. And on that note, it’s hard to believe she is still the only Black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, and her latest outing for Never Let Go certainly reminds us of her on-screen talents that earned her said trophy.
Regarding the film’s title — no, this isn’t a nod to Kate Winslet’s iconic line from Titanic, but rather an important rule the new film’s perpetually distressed mother (Berry) orders her two young sons to obey each and every day as they carry out their dangerous existence in the wilderness. No spoilers, but the thriller from Alexandre Aja (Crawl) and writers KC Coughlin & Ryan Grassby turns awfully psychological in the best ways, even if it’s a creeper of a tale we’ve more or less seen over the years already.
Never Let Go Proves Momma Knows Best(?)
There have been similar premises in past features centering on questionable parents overprotecting their offspring from the dangers of the outside world. Nicole Kidman shielded her two kids from sunlight in The Others (2001). The daughters in The Virgin Suicides (1999) weren’t allowed to attend school despite the fact that their overprotective father (James Woods) was a teacher at the local facility.
Now there’s Never Let Go, a more apocalyptic study in the form of a makeup-stricken Halle Berry as an unnamed “Momma,” occupying a sorry existence that is a broken-down house seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Her two kids are Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) and Nolan (Percy Daggs IV), who are forced to tether themselves to a long rope connected to the residence every time they venture out for the day in search of food and supplies to last them through each harsh winter.
“Never let go” are the words the boys say in unison before they step outside the safety net that is their dwelling, though you can already see it in the ambitious youngings’ eyes from the get-go that they’re increasingly suspicious of Momma’s fears for the world around them. It certainly doesn’t help that the boys literally cannot see the monsters that take shape and come after them in the rare instances when one of them becomes untethered, thereby ticking off the villainous forces that they now have free rein to hunt the now-vulnerable prey. Why can only Momma see the evil beings? Are they instead just — dare they say — figments of her hypothetically foggy mind amid this perpetually foggy environment they inhabit?
Leading Lady Halle Berry Is Back
Sure, this world-is-ending brand of scares here has arguably been overdone over the years, and the CGI nature of the film’s monstrous beings might be a bit of a turn-off for some. But Never Let Go — not to be confused with Never Let Me Go (2010), which also centered on quite a dystopian premise — luckily makes up for certain pitfalls with a number of resounding strengths. For one, rising stars Jenkins and Daggs undoubtedly show promise in Hollywood with their supporting turns here, and the script fortunately provides the brotherly roles with distinctive enough personalities. Nolan is more inclined to side with Momma, for example, with the rebellious Samuel putting up a fight and wanting to do away with the impossibly rigid rules they must live by.
Plus, you have Aja, the director of Crawl (2019), at the helm of Never Let Go, meaning his latest venture is chock-full of genuinely frightening sequences — even when those evil entities aren’t in the picture. And just because Halle Berry’s physical demeanor might call back to the critically panned Gothika (2003), fret not because Aja guides a more nuanced, layered, and arresting performance by the Oscar winner with Never Let Go. One of the strongest scenes comes when Berry’s Momma comes face to face with her now-deceased husband (William Catlett), who returns to the property at night every now and then to ensure Momma isn’t getting a good night’s sleep by aggressively reminding her that she should just untether herself from the house and join him. It’s a chilling, anxiety-inducing game of verbal chicken that sticks with you.
It also helps that the story keeps you on your toes with a shocking death before the true climax even kicks into high gear. And watch out for a pulse-pounding encounter between the boys and a supposedly innocent passerby in the woods (Matthew Kevin Anderson), followed later by a blink-and-you-miss-it cliffhanger of a final image, which could even set up future installments. Why not? In the meantime, watch Berry return to the spotlight for a commercial project that reminds us why she easily won Oscar gold all those years ago. From Lionsgate, Never Let Go will be released in theaters on September 20.
