Movie Review: 'Never Let Me Go'

You are human, an individual with a soul. You know it with every fiber of your being. So how would you feel if the rest of the world didn't agree with you?

Director Mark Romanek's interpretation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go addresses such a thought with a simple, but beautiful lens. Kathy H. (Carey Mulligan) introduces us to her world, a world where medicine peaked in the 1950s and rid the world of some of its most awful illnesses. The span of a human life has expanded to over 100 years. The solution to the world's ills is not immediately clear to us, but comes in the forms of clues dropped by the screenplay, and the actions of the characters onscreen.

We are taken back to 1978 and are introduced to Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding house set in the countryside. The children there are by all appearances normal. They paint, they study, they argue and tease and they make friends. But Kathy and her friends, Tommy and Ruth are not normal, as evidenced by little glimpses here and there--the children wear metal bracelets that must be scanned when they come and go and they are constantly reminded that maintaining their health is of the utmost importance.

Only when a concerned teacher reveals to the children that their sole purpose in life is to provide organs for transplants do we truly understand the secret behind this blissful new world. But this isn't a sci-fi film with fast-paced action scenes and people desperately fighting to escape their fate. No, it's a contemplative piece about the human condition, even those we might not consider to be human.

Kathy, Tommy and Ruth are resigned to their fates and are as human as one could be. Kathy is quiet and contemplative, and drawn to Tommy, a frustrated loner. Ruth is self-confident and proud, but perhaps more vulnerable than she appears. Despite Kathy and Tommy's budding romance as children, Ruth snatches him away.

Several years later, the children, now young adults, leave Hailsham and move to "The Cottages," a designated compound where they are to stay until they begin their donations. Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) remain together, although their relationship is tumultuous and Kathy remains on the sidelines. At the Cottages, rumors fly about the teens: there is a possibility of "deferral"--Donors who can prove that they are truly in love can have a reprieve from their donations for a brief time to be together.

Tommy is certain that "The Gallery," where the children's art and poetry was kept and a place held in high esteem at Hailsham, is actually a way to look into their souls. If a couple was to apply for a deferral, they need only bring their art and poetry so it could be determined that their love was genuine.

But the rumors are put aside as the friends begin to fall apart. As Tommy tries to reconnect with Kathy despite Ruth's insistence, Kathy's relationship with Ruth begins to splinter, eventually pushing the three apart. Kathy applies to be a "Carer"-- a person assigned to the Donors to look out for them as they recover from their donations - in essence, the parents they never had.

Ten years pass and Kathy comes across Ruth by chance. The effects of her donations are clear on her wasted face and in the stagger of her feet as she clings to her walker. Indeed, the once confident Ruth has been beaten - she hopes that she will "complete" upon her next donation. The girls then reunite with Tommy and all the actions of the past are revisited and the old rumors of their youth begin to swirl about them once more.

Never Let Me Go never says exactly what this alternate world thinks of these people, these Donors. But it's an obvious understanding by the end of the film: why would you want to think of these clones as anything but? To think of them as human would mean a prick of the conscience and an end to 100 plus years of well-deserved life. The short existence of these laboratory-contrived children is the cost we must pay for health.

Alex Garland's screenplay is impeccable, keeping to the style of the novel by Ishiguro, he allows the actions to speak louder than the words and the actors follow this theme wonderfully. Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley shine in their parts, but it is Andrew Garfield who steals the spot light. Tommy's isolation and often tortured creative mind seeps into every aspect of Garfield's performance, even down to his gait. Garfield is going to be one to watch in the coming years.

It's impossible to watch Never Let Me Go without a little bit of guilt, mostly because it's so easy to see the parallels in our own society. And really, if confronted with the same situation, the choice to use clones for our own ends, would we behave any differently if an extended life was the answer?

Rating: A

Never Let Me Go
Starring: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield.
Written by Alex Garland, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Running time: 104 minutes.
Rated R (for nudity, language and moderately graphic surgery).