The director could have taken the script of Never Let Me Go and turned it into something big and awful, except it was treated with the subtlety and respect it deserved and is the most beautiful film I have seen this year…
Usually when a well-received novel is translated into a film, the results are mostly dire; in this case, a Japanese novel about human cloning set in 1980’s England.
The director could have taken this script and turned it into something big and awful, except it was treated with the subtlety and respect it deserved and is the most beautiful film I have seen this year. The film in question, Never Let Me Go is directed by Mark Romanek who came from the world of music video directing and whose directorial debut was One Hour Photo and is written by Booker-nominated Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day).
Set in a time that is hard to detect, we quickly get to know the three central characters; Cathy, Tommy and Ruth, as children and then watching them grow into teenagers at the Hailsham Boarding School in the English countryside. Life is simple and happy with regular toy deliveries and no real sense of being ‘imprisoned’.
The costuming (which was extremely well done) is all Fair Isle jumpers, gym slips and sensible brown shoes abound. Muted colours set the mood, with no bright shiny objects to be seen, life is simplistic but regimented by tracking bracelets and daily medication.
This is essentially a sci-fi film set in a time when humans needed clones to harvest organs, but there are no typically futuristic sets – the set was a subtle take on the future – where humans lived longer and needed replacement organs, but the actual world to look at, had not really changed at all.
The three central characters were cast perfectly, the wonderfully-gentle and quietly-intelligent Carey Mulligan as Cathy, who quietly lives her life accepting what she has been created to do, Andrew Garfield plays the sensitive Tommy, a emotionally-vulnerable role that is joy to see him in. And Kiera Knightley, an actress who many love to hate, who is wonderful as Ruth – Cathy’s best frenemie who manipulates until she gets what she wants, with a surprising outcome.
My favourite scene in Never Let Me Go was shot on Norfolk’s Holkam Beach, a typically-bleak English beach where the three reconnect and conversation of honesty is had that changes everything. If I could use some words to describe the feelings that emerge during this scene they would be – trust, love, heartbreak, secrets, friendship, destiny, humanity and beauty.
The final scenes plays out with no running or tears, just acceptance of the life they were created to serve. Never Let Me Go is romantic and beautiful and heartbreaking…prepare to shed a few tears.
By Christine Young, 20 March 2011.
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