Never Let Me Go

"Never Let Me Go"
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins
Directed by: Mark Romanek
103 minutes
2010/UK

Having not read the novel Never Let Me Go, it's hard to determine how much detail and depth from the novel was left out of the film. Having said that, I will go on and say that "Never Let Me Go" is a film that doesn't hold its audiences hand, and audiences looking for easy answers and conclusions will be fairly disappointed, save for a final voice-over by a lead character that basically spells out the themes of the film for its viewer.

The film takes place in an alternate and cold reality where things aren't quite normal. We learn that a medical breakthrough in 1952 provided cures for once incurable diseases. In 1967, the human life expectancy surpassed 100 years.  Thinking back on it now, if the world of the film was as realized as Cuaron's "Children of Men," I think it would have impacted me more. The tricky part resides in the fact that Romanek's shot selection and mood are both on target throughout.  Our primal insight and perspective into this world is from the viewpoint of three kids who attend an upscale boarding school called Hailsham. The kids are Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth, each played by Mulligan, Garfield, and Knightley. Hailsham is no normal school, the kids are clearly under the watchful supervision of the school superiors, the main one being Miss Emily, played by Charlotte Rampling. She informs them early that they must take care of themselves in the best and most fully realized way. The kids have a notion instilled in them of what their future path will be; this path comprises the rest of the narrative.

The film is sectioned off into three parts. The first is the days of Hailsham, where Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth all come into close friendship and young romance with each other. Together they experience friendship, love, betrayal and regret. The film takes a turn when Miss Lucy (Hawkins) informs the kids out of pity of their true fate. *** Spoilers**** The kids are basically clones designed to grow into middle age and donate their organs off. After they donate through three stages, also called 'completion,' they die. The harsh and stark truth of this reveal is a heartbreaking moment in the film, especially as its viewed and understood by the kids at Hailsham. The narrative then immediately jumps into the future where the three kids are young adults living in cottages awaiting their first donation.

The problem the narrative possesses is that it doesn't give the viewer enough time with these characters before the end rolls around. Yes, we're supposed to have cared for them way before the end, but as each section of the film was presented, I felt more disconnect and detached, and that is a problem. The days at Hailsham are perhaps the most intriguing and heartbreaking, but most of the narrative occurs after this. After we've left the school, the romance between Tommy and Ruth is on full display. Kathy is isolated from them on a sort of emotional level, but all three are bound by their past and dreadful fate.

 The doners are all basically looked down upon by older people they come across, something that the script doesn't delve too much into throughout the film. We view awkward but realistic scenes of the trio and their two other friends at a restaurant, Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy have no idea what to do when a waitress hovers over them awaiting their order. They're completely out of touch and out of place in the world they live in, and it's obvious. They watch late night television and laugh at things they don't understand. The interesting thing is how Tommy, Ruth, and Kathy's dynamic with one another morphs and changes throughout the film. It's not a clichéd love triangle, but a fear of being alone that the three share.

The script by Alex Garland is a major problem. The three main actors do a great job and the emotions are there for them to display, but it just doesn't reach us like it should. I'm not sure if this is due to the coldness of the world they live in, or that the narrative is harshly rushed. I wanted more time with these characters, as their dynamic, while heavily complex and fragile, isn't fully realized like it should be. We start in Hailsham, go to the cottages, then straight to the last section titled completion. The film is under two hours, and it's possible that Romanek wanted us to feel what time quickly slipping away like the characters did. I would have liked another 45 minutes or an hour for this story to take form.

 As I mentioned earlier, we're not dialed in to all the details of the characters' reality. We know they don't have much time and that they can choose to be a carer before they donate, a carer looks after and supports other doners, Kathy is a carer. Mulligan gives the most restrained performance in the film, she accepts the given scenario and tries to make the best of it. Her character Kathy is unlike Tommy and Ruth in the way that she doesn't look for solutions and answers. Garfield's Tommy is heartbreaking in his efforts to prolong life and seek out rumors he's heard of life extensions given to those who are in love. Ruth is an angrier, but more accepting version of Tommy. She's the first to donate and the final image of her character is the perhaps the most haunting in the film.

"Never Let Me Go" is ultimately a puzzling effort from Romanek. How can so much proposed emotion along with amazing performances go unnoticed and consequently not even enhance one's opinion on the film? It's unfair to call this project a disappointment , but I'm willing to offer it another chance to see if I truly missed something. The directing and the performances are there, the story just isn't. The blending of sci-fi and brute drama is an intriguing idea, but "Never Let Me Go" fails to encompass any consistency between the two, resulting in a unfortunate head scratcher.

Grade: 3/5