Never Ever (2016) User Reviews

Somnolence disguised as an art film

[tadam-51245 · 5/10 · 17 January 2021]

I had to watch this in 2 stages; I fell asleep partway through it. When I started watching a day later, I had to get online to remember what it was about. That should tell you something.

I rated it a 5/10 because it is beautifully filmed, but that's really all it has going for it. The second half of the film is painfully slow, absolutely glacial in its pacing. This is a film that mistakes silence for deep contemplation, and somber lighting and looks for artistry. It wants to be thought of as profound and insightful, and fails to deliver on either.

Trying too hard

[Costin_Gagu · 6/10 · 17 September 2016]

I recently viewed this movie at TIFF. Needless to say, high expectations considering the director's resume. It was an sour experience with a sweet taste. The movie offered plenty of artistic elements and post modernism perspectives but failed to offer well defined characters hence an anthology of abstract confusion and a rather ambiguous soul searching trip. The drama around loss and love is stolen by a personal trip of redefining, ambiguous and not well portrayed. I suspect the lack of experience of an otherwise promising screenwriter. A plus given by the music and art director. And that's all... A good book poorly translated in a movie. It is however first time when I can say that I am happy to have spend money on a movie that I did not like.

Nothing much happens! Strictly for the fans of the novelist that it is based on

[jordondave-28085 · 4/10 · 11 December 2023]

(2016) Never Ever/ À jamais (In French with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA

Adapted from the novel "The Body Artist" by Don DeLillo that has director/ screenwriter, Rey (Mathieu Amalric) falling for body artist, Laura (Julia Roy). And it's like although he already has a girlfriend name Isabel (Jeanne Balibar) who is actually an actress and familiar collaborator we find out later, Rey ends up marrying his new flame, Laura. At the same time, Rey is being strapped for cash, and is attempting to press for an advance payment for an unfinished script. And then the inevitable happens, is when Rey kind of tells his wife a white lie about where he was heading. Takes a plane to confront his former flame Isabel, only as soon as he heads back home while riding on his motorcycle, he gets himself killed by getting involved into an unfortunate accident. Before his funeral service, Laura then places his cell inside his suit pocket, and as soon as Isabel speaks, Laura attempt to sabotage it by calling Rey's cell. It was at this point, Laura begins to isolate herself and begins to imagine Rey's presence fully knowing he has been cremated. We then see Laura do more odd things such as watch the same road Rey had his accident through security cameras, particularly at night.

Whether the movie is faithful to the source material is irrelevant as I believe that like films, not all books are gems. First of all, the entire relationship between Rey and Laura never seemed real to me, to convince me she was so much in love with him, that she was able to imagine his presence after his death. Rey was pursuing Laura and it was not the other way around. When viewers were informed they were married, viewers are also kept in the dark whether it was a private wedding or did he have guests and who paid for it since money was tight for Rey. Laura was not even working at all, so where was their financial income coming from! And then at the end, viewers are still kept in the dark whether she gets, to keep the villa, as she still owed 2 months rent to the landlord. Did Rey have a will or some financial insurance in regarding his demise. Both the characters as well as the movie itself is just as vague as the viewers who are watching it.

The weight of the departed

[hof-4 · 6/10 · 11 November 2023]

Movie director Jacques Rey (Mathieu Amalric) is writing the script for his next film, or so he says; his producer tries to nudge him to complete his work and to collaborate with Isabelle (Jeanne Balibar), Jacques' lover and the star of all his recent movies. Isabelle informs Jacques she expects a starring role in the coming film and endlessly importunates him via mobile phone. Jacques, who seems blocked, takes up with Laura (Julia Roy) a young performance artist and they rent a sprawling oceanside villa on the Portuguese coast, presumably to aid Jacques' concentration on his work. Jacques drives his motorcycle recklessly and during an unnecessary shopping trip he is involved in a suicidal road accident and killed. Laura stays in the villa and gradually conjures up an image of Jacques, who seems helpless and speaks in lines that he used in life; at times, the specter is herself.

There are some nice directorial touches, some humorous. At the cremation ceremony for Jacques Isabelle delivers the speech to Laura's chagrin, who tries to sabotage the proceedings. The hapless owner of the villa appears twice; first to rescue a dresser, then, his expectations lowered, just to be paid the rent. Music at times sounds like Bernard Herrmann's themes for Hitchcock movies, especially Vertigo (both films deal with the conjuring up of the departed in different ways). The arrival of the spectral Jacques is announced by a noise already heard when he was alive, but now having a new meaning of premonition..

The movie is based on the 2001 novella The Body Artist by Don DeLillo, who cowrote the adaptation together with actress Julia Roy. The resulting script does not integrate some elements in a coherent way and some parts seem to be unrelated to the rest. For instance, Laura watches endlessly footage of a highway at night from security cameras (with emphasis on an exit) and then uses it for her performance act. One could assign various superficial meanings to this, but what did the script actually attempt to tell us? And, why Never Ever as the title? Is this supposed to make us think of Ever After? And so on. The final result is a disappointing , disjointed movie that one senses could have been better with a batter script. It still deserves a watch. Production values and acting are excellent.