I always feel that I’ve done injustice to a film when I see it without having read the book, but that soon subsides because I’m not here to review the book, I’m here to review the film. Having heard that “Never Let Me Go” was one of the best books of the decade, my hopes were quite elevated. With a little help from some talented folks, the tables have turned and we can now find out if it could be considered one of the best films of the decade.
I hate to burst your bubble so soon, but it’s not. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it doesn’t quite meet the criteria needed to fall into such an illustrious category.
The story itself is quite interesting and original. We follow the lives of three children as they grow up in a school called Hailsham. This isn’t any ordinary school, although they would like you to think so. It’s a school for clones, and these clones have one purpose — to be harvested for their organs. I know that sounds like the premise for a horror movie but use your imagination for a second — after all, if we could actually pull this off, a lot of lives would be saved. The overall premise of this story isn’t the harvesting of organs, it’s more of an issue of morality for these children who grow older and older knowing their time is running out and soon their cycle will be complete.
The three main characters are Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield). Tommy is a bit of a loner, who suffering from rage issues, and has a hard time making friends. Kathy notices this and decides to give him a chance. Although we usually don’t find love at such a young age, these children are technically at the halfway point in their lives, and it’s clear that Kathy and Tommy connect in a perfect way.
Ruth, who is very attractive and popular amongst the boys notices this connection as well and decides to squeeze between them, taking Tommy for herself. This continues into their late teens and as they approach their donations. We ourselves begin feeling slightly tormented as we hope they can get as much out of their love as they can with the little time they have left.
“Never Let Me Go” is such a promising platform for a writer. Alex Garland is one of my favorite writers and being a novelist himself, he definitely holds the key to staying true to Kazuo Ishiguro’s work. Unfortunately, the screenplay has a severe lack of dialogue throughout, relying on dark, scenic shots to hold us over.
This rolls over into the directing obviously, because a director can only work with what he has in his hands and it honestly isn’t much. Mark Romanek manages to fill the film’s holes with a very unaggressive style that lets us manage our own emotions instead of telling us what to feel for these characters. His bleak pastel backdrops during the credits and transitions were also surprisingly beautiful to look at in all their simplicity.
Having earned an Oscar nomination so early in her career, it’s evident that Carey Mulligan is a name we won’t soon be forgetting, and she does a fantastic job keeping her reputation untarnished as Kathy. As good as Mulligan is, Garfield stood out to me in a more important way. Since I saw him in “Boy A” I have been waiting for his career to take off, and now that it has, it’s nice to see him have a wide range in his acting style. Like “Boy A,” his character here is quiet, reserved, yet full of thoughts and talent clawing at the surface. He is seamless in portraying the highly functional tortured soul and I hope to see more of it on a larger scale some day.
Like I said, “Never Let Me Go” is not one of the ten best films of the decade but most films aren’t. You may find yourself remembering a lot of the important parts of the film from the trailer, because they are all in there, and this is a big disappointment to me. However, it proves my point about it’s sever lack of content. It’s definitely a film you should watch if you have the time, but I’d say maybe give it a read first. It will probably make your viewing experience a little more interesting.