Reviews
Never Let Me Go review
February 11 2011
Provocative in its lack of provocation, Never Let Me Go is a thoughtful, subtle and profound piece of cinema.
Suffused in desolate sadness, Never Let Me Go is a disquieting journey through the bleak midwinter of the human soul.
Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, it has been adapted for the screen by The Beach author Alex Garland with a sympathetic feel for tone and texture. And it marks a triumphant return to directing for Mark Romanek, after eight years in the wilderness.
England in the 1970s, a society stuck beneath grey skies somewhere between the old world and the new. At Hailsham, students are reminded that they’re ‘special’, but the fences that enclose them and the guards at their gate strike an unsettling note.
These children are clones, created to donate their organs as young adults and eventually reach ‘completion’. Hailsham is the acceptable face of barbarity: a grotesque parody of childhood, education and care.
It’s here that Tommy (Andrew Garfield), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Kathy (Carey Mulligan) form a friendship that will come to define their lives. After they leave Hailsham, they will get a brief taste of life on the threshold of death. And they will come to understand in their own ways what it means to be truly human, with its attendant tragedies, betrayals and rare, precious moments of transcendence.
Romanek and his production team have fashioned an exquisitely moving film that revels in the precise artifice of cinema – composition, framing, light and editing – but which demonstrates the artist’s flair for emotional connection. Inspired by Japanese Noh drama, Romanek’s formal rigour belies the pain, loss and solitude shifting like oceanic currents beneath the surface.
The passions that ignite between the three friends are a heartbreaking contrast to the repressive monotony of the country at large. Glimpsed from car windows or through café doors, the world that denies them is a place of dormancy and decay – one indesperateneedoftheirlife,lustandjoy.Aboveall else,NeverLetMeGoisastoryoftragicwaste.
It is also a showcase for a new generation of English actors, led by Carey Mulligan, who proves once again that she is a performer of great restraint and subtlety. An ungenerous reading might suggest that Kathy’s passivity in the face of tragedy, perhaps even her collusion in it, betrays her own essential inhumanity. But it’s her grace, her acceptance of life and her determination to experience fully those moments she has that speaks to the best part of our nature.
Close your eyes for a moment and listen, and it’s possible to hear the agonised cry for help buried at the film’s core, but that anguish never breaks the surface. Its restraint is a challenge – we’re conditioned to expect some sort of cathartic resolution founded in anger and revenge – but Romanek doesn’t offer us that release. Instead, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy find solace in forgiveness.
And what could be more human than that?
Anticipation:
Enjoyment:
In Retrospect:
Never Let Me Go (text) by Matt Bochenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
While I loved the movie (and generally enjoy your reviews) I felt your review was good for the first three paragraphs byt then revealed too much. Part of the joy of experiencing this film is waiting to see what horror lies ahead.
It’s a film that I think is very difficult to review and best experienced first hand. I had little knowledge of what Never Let Me Go was about, except that it was based on an extraordinarily moving novel and featured a stunning cast.
(Minor spoiler ahead)
I don’t think any film has… ‘resonated’ with me as much as this one… the final scene, after being primed throughout the film, was like an emotional sucker punch.
Written by Greg W on February 11th, 2011 at 12:00
I saw the film last week and was very disappointed. It trundles along devoid of feeling and wallowing in the “oh so thought provoking” premise of the story which is flimsy and basic at best. Mulligan acts her heart out but at the same time she appears to be almost willing the other two characters to actually start acting at some point rather than mumbling everything (Garfield) and looking into space and pouting (Knightley).
If you like watching people wander around hospital wards talking about dying when there is nothing actually wrong with them and how they could've lived and loved if given the opportunity then this is the film for you.
Written by wid on February 11th, 2011 at 19:30
I've not seen the film yet and nor have I read the book, and I'm a little disappointed that you've given away the 'secret purpose' of the main characters' lives in this review – I found that a bit careless especially since everything else I've read about the film has been careful enough to keep it under wraps for the viewer to find out for themselves.
Written by Pete on February 14th, 2011 at 09:41
There is no substitute for reading this extraordinarily moving, multi-layered novel. The film does its best, but misses some of the most important subtleties: for example, the children at Hailsham have a fantasy about the 'lost corner' of England – Norfolk – where all the things they have ever lost in life end up. It is of course in Norfolk that they go to search out Ruth's 'possible', the original model from which she is cloned. And although they don't find the 'possible' (for how could you ever find a possible? then it would stop being possible!) Tommy and Kathy do find her lost cassette tape, the song 'Never Let Me Go' that gives the book its title.
The theme of loss is well expressed in the film, and the bleakness truly moving; but Ishiguro's writing exceeds by far what could ever be portrayed in a film. Go read the book.
Written by Rosie on February 14th, 2011 at 11:40
Your lines:
"These children are clones, created to donate their organs as young adults and eventually reach ‘completion’. " and "And they will come to understand in their own ways what it means to be truly human, with its attendant tragedies, betrayals and rare, precious moments of transcendence."
- aren't really necessary for this review, since when does LWL give away major plotlines?
Written by George O on February 15th, 2011 at 09:34
I'm not sure how much of a spoiler these lines actually are given that this narrative device is revealed within the first 15 minutes of the film.
Written by AdamLWLies on February 15th, 2011 at 10:21
That's still 15 minutes of anticipation/suspense that you've removed. While I don't value IMDB for their ground breaking or thought provoking reviews, I like their simple approach – sometimes talk around the film instead of listing a play-by-play e.g. the Wikipedia entry for Never Let Me Go.
Anyways, I generally enjoy LWL reviews (I own a dozen LWL magazines), and more importantly the films you choose to focus on, I just felt this one could have been a bit more subtle.
Written by George O on February 15th, 2011 at 11:03
Good review and I had the same thought as you about the possibility of the clones' "essential inhumanity". For me that was what was most disquieting – the lack of rebellion/struggle, somehow amplified by Romanek's downbeat, muted style.
Attempt to elaborate here: http://shotthroughawindow.wordpress.com/2011/02/1…
Written by JamieR on February 15th, 2011 at 17:51