Never Let Me Go

I was able to see Never Let Me Go last weekend. This is the film that I thought I was going to see when I went to see Easy A. This time I got the right film.

The film is based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro—which I have not read—and stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. The characters played by these three actors are all donors who have been apparently cloned, and raised so that their organs can be harvested and used to save the lives of regular members of society. The donations will continue until the donors no longer are able to survive without the organs they have donated and then, in the words of the film, they complete.

The film starts when the characters are school children being raised at a cloistered boarding school in England. At a point fairly early in the film the children find out the truth about their situation, which up until this time they have been oblivious to.

The film then jumps ahead several years to when the three have graduated from the school, and are sent out into the real world to wait to be called to begin their donations. Of course, having been raised without any contact with the outside world, they are ill prepared for this change.

The film has gotten mixed reviews, with only a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, I have to say that I liked it quite a lot. Some of criticism has centered on the fact that the film deals mostly with the relationships of the three main characters, and the ethical issues raised by the entire situation that has created them is not really dealt with in the film. This is a valid criticism, but I appreciated the fact that the film focused on the outstanding performances of the three actors, and did not go for the sensationalism that could easily have been generated in a film on this topic. The film does have a languid pace, so if you want a fast moving, melodramatic film skip this one. If you want to see some great acting, and a finely directed film you probably could not do better. On top of that Charlotte Rampling play the headmistress of the school.