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In my will, I have left to the next generation such parts of my poor body that it can salvage. That is the Golden Rule. I suppose if you take it literally, you would accept life as a Donor in "Never Let Me Go," because after all, that is the purpose for which you were born. In the film, there is a society within the larger one consisting of children who were created in a laboratory to be Donors. They have no parents in the sense we use the term. I'm not even sure they can be parents. They exist to grow hearts, kidneys, livers and other useful items, and then, sadly, to die after too much has been cut away.

When I read Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, the Donors' purpose was left murky until midway through the book. In the film, it's clear to us but not, up to a certain point, to the children. They live within a closed world whose value system takes pride in how often and successfully they have donated. They accept this. It is all they have ever known. One of the most dangerous concepts of human society is that children believe what they are told. Those who grow out of that become adults, a status not always achieved by their parents.

We meet three Donor children, first when young and then later. They are Kathy, Tommy and Ruth, played in their 20s by Carey Mulligan , Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley . They were raised at Hailsham, a progressive boarding school for Donors: progressive in the sense that it's an experiment based on the possibility that these test-tube babies are real human beings. Well, of course they are, we think. But it doesn't suit the convenience of the larger society to think of them in that way. If you are about to get someone's heart, don't you tend to objectify the source? You should. If you get my heart, I don't want you moping around about me. It's your heart. You pay the bills.

The teachers at Hailsham aren't precisely progressives in the John Dewey tradition, but the school is the last one that still encourages the children at all. The society wants these Donors for one purpose and doesn't want to waste resources on them for any other. If you can walk through this plot without tripping over parallels to our own society and educational systems, you're more sure-footed than I.

The director, Mark Romanek , wisely follows Ishiguro in burying any meanings well within a human story. The film is about Kathy, Tommy and Ruth and their world, and not some sort of parable like 1984. Essentially it asks, how do you live with the knowledge that you are not considered a human being but simply a consumer resource? Many hourly workers at big box stores must sometimes ponder this question.

"Never Let Me Go" would have made a serious error in ramping up contrived melodrama toward some sort of science-fiction showdown. This is a movie about empathy. About how Ruth realizes Kathy and Tommy were naturally in love with each other as adolescents, and how she selfishly upset that process. About how now, when it may be too late, she wants to make amends. About the old rumor at Hailsham that if two Donors should fall deeply in love they might qualify for some sort of reprieve — short-term, to be sure. But if their masters can believe they can love, they would have to believe they are human. Two of the requirements for a being with a soul in Thomist philosophy are free will, and the ability to love. Donors qualify for both.

This is such a meditative, delicate film. I heard some snuffling about me in the darkness. These poor people are innocent. They have the same hopes everyone has. It is so touching that they gladly give their organs to humankind. Greater love hath no man, than he who gives me his kidney, especially his second one.

This is a good movie, from a masterful novel. "The Remains of the Day," also inspired by an Ishiguro novel, was similar: What is happening is implied, not spelled out. We are required to observe. Even the events themselves are amenable to different interpretations. The characters may not know what they're revealing about themselves. They certainly don't know the whole truth of their existence. We do, because we are free humans. It is sometimes not easy to extend such stature to those we value because they support our comfort.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Rated R for nudity, language and moderately graphic surgery

103 minutes

Sally Hawkins as Miss Lucy

Keira Knightley as Ruth

Carey Mulligan as Kathy

Andrew Garfield as Tommy

Charlotte Rampling as Miss Emily

• Alex Garland

Directed by

• Mark Romanek

Based on the novel by

• Kazuo Ishiguro

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Never Let Me Go Reviews

Ishiguro's gentle science fiction concept is rendered with melancholy subtlety by Romanek.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2024

This disturbing narrative about believable characters in their fatalistic world offers an affecting drama that stays with the viewer long after the film has ended.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 3, 2023

It's anxiously moving. But also the most morbid film human eyes have ever seen. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 4, 2022

It steeps us in this haunted world with great delicacy, great beauty, and lets the harsh corners seep in slow

Full Review | Jan 10, 2022

Awe inspiring filmmaking...

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 25, 2021

It was Kazuo Ishiguro's appropriation of this hope with young love that really spoke to me when I read the book. And it's carried out beautifully here by Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield.

Full Review | Mar 21, 2021

Flawed but fascinating, the lasting impression of Never Let Me Go is perhaps best summed up by Kathy: "None of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 1, 2021

Romanek remains faithful to Ishiguro's literary vision.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 18, 2020

Garland brilliantly maintains the book's tone and the elusiveness of its setting.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jun 7, 2020

The performances are all first-rate. The film's look-washed out gray and windswept-is Brontësque and quite beautiful.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2020

It is a poem of a film.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2020

Mark Romanek conjures visions of mortality via elegiac images of England's cozy landscape and haunting architecture. He lets the film unfold as a delicate mood piece, sustaining a tone of aching beauty with remarkable control.

Full Review | Aug 20, 2019

In struggling to meet the profound levels of its literary forbearer, the film finds itself in that unfortunate no-man's land between light entertainment and high-end art - satisfying neither the movie aficionado nor the casual cinema-goer.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 6, 2018

Tragic, beautiful and simultaneously strange and familiar, Never Let Me Go serves a unique slant on the universal human condition.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 6, 2018

Perhaps such passive solemnity is true to the book, but on screen, along with the sad tinkling piano and the sad violins that just won't quit, the overall effect is so enervating that you simply don't feel a damned thing.

Full Review | Aug 30, 2018

Never Let Me Go is an unrelentingly bleak film in which you watch these three characters grow up and march towards their doom.

Full Review | May 21, 2018

The lack of dramatic tension means it's difficult to emotionally connect with the central characters and their dilemma.

Full Review | May 15, 2018

Only when the girls team up does the film start to fulfill its promise.

Full Review | Jan 3, 2018

The script could have done better to translate the concept. It works as a big picture concept, but doesn't get the treatment it deserves here.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Sep 8, 2017

It is gorgeous and sad.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2017

Never Let Me Go

An emotionally devastating adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Based on the acclaimed novel by “The Remains of the Day” scribe Kazuo Ishiguro , “ Never Let Me Go ” is that rare find, a fragile little four-leaf clover of a movie that’s emotionally devastating, yet all too easily trampled by cynics. Every carefully chosen gesture, composition and note in this tragic love story seems engineered to wring tears as director Mark Romanek (“One Hour Photo”) gradually pulls back to reveal the full scope of his ambitious thought experiment. Literary pedigree and near-certain critical swell should give this Fox Searchlight release serious traction with adults, if not those closer to the characters’ ages.

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Though technically a science-fiction story, “Never Let Me Go” plays more like a polite Victorian romance, all repressed feelings and unrequited yearning. Still, conceived in the spirit of such future-minded parables as “Children of Men” and “Fahrenheit 451,” Ishiguro’s premise — about an alternate society in which a special class of test-tube children are raised for the sole purpose of donating their organs — manipulates certain key variables in our world in order to arrive at some deeper truth.

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Whereas the book withheld what made its three central donor children unique until nearly halfway through, screenwriter Alex Garland (“28 Days Later”) puts it right out in the open. Though the students of Hailsham boarding school are too young to understand it, they are completely different from normal children, preparing not for life but for the more utilitarian function of extending the lives of others (since the National Donor Program was instated in 1952, life expectancy has climbed to 100). Their stern headmistress, Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling), takes great care to shelter them from any awareness of their fates or the well-rounded lives of which they’re being deprived.

Instead, the kids grow up believing all sorts of rumors and superstitions, from horrible stories of what happens to those who cross the school fence to a hazy rule granting Hailsham students a temporary reprieve from donations whenever they fall in love. Only idealistic new teacher Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins) dares treat them honestly — an indiscretion that promptly gets her dismissed, but not before she has a chance to touch the lives of the three main characters.

First seen in 1978, Kathy (a sensitive Isobel Meikle-Small) will grow up to be a “carer” (played by Carey Mulligan ), helping others through their operations. Kathy demonstrates this quality early on, attempting to comfort hot-headed Tommy after the other students pull a cruel prank on him. (Tommy is played by Charlie Rowe, who lacks many of the half-formed childlike mannerisms Andrew Garfield later uncovers in the character.) Before Kathy and Tommy’s shy courtship can properly take hold, her best friend, Ruth (Ella Purnell, a beautiful little back-stabber), makes a move, keeping the two soulmates apart for the better part of their short lives.

With Keira Knightley playing the elder Ruth (revisited at two more stages, as the trio leave Hailsham seven years later, and finally, in the midst of her donations), “Never Let Me Go” provides a dramatic reversal of the actress’ earlier “Atonement” — this time, it’s Knightley’s character who bears the guilt of ruining someone else’s relationship. Most auds will have been weeping long before Ruth asks forgiveness, such is the shameless, sympathy-mongering tone Romanek embraces for the entire film.

A series of mirthless gray halls, Hailsham is no Hogwarts, the costumes and furnishings more reminiscent of a 1930s juvenile detention center than of any institution operating during the late ’70s. Romanek, best known for his visionary musicvideo work, tries to hold back anything that might brand the film as overly personal, and yet, as in “One Hour Photo,” his gift for texture and tone shines through. Once again, the helmer seems drawn to the melancholy side of his material, directing the cast, especially Mulligan, to play everything as if teetering on the brink of a complete emotional breakdown.

This extreme approach requires a level of commitment not only from the cast but from the audience as well, asking us to look past huge plausibility holes (the whole donor system seems terribly inefficient) and instead dedicate our attention to deciphering the subtlest of nonverbal cues, often aided by Rachel Portman ‘s effectively grief-inducing score and Adam Kimmel’s lensing, which transforms every image into a source for introspection. A few faint wisps of narration aside, Mulligan does most of her work without dialogue, relying on engaged auds to piece together what Kathy is thinking.

Despite perpetrating a number of significant changes from the novel, Garland really gets to the marrow of it, raising philosophical questions about science and the soul that trace all the way back to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” With its ties to contemporary medical ethics as well, “Never Let Me Go” is the type of film that invites discussion after the fact, proving Romanek has more on his mind than simply making people cry.

• Production: A Fox Searchlight (in U.S.) release presented with DNA Films and Film4, produced in association with Dune Entertainment. Produced by Andrew MacDonald, Allon Reich. Executive producers, Alex Garland, Kazuo Ishiguro, Tessa Ross. Co-producer, Richard Hewitt. Directed by Mark Romanek. Screenplay, Alex Garland, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
• Crew: Camera (color, widescreen), Adam Kimmel; editor, Barney Pilling; music, Rachel Portman; music supervisors, Randall Poster, George Drakoulias; production designer, Mark Digby; costume designers, Rachel Fleming, Steven Noble; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Jim Greenhorn; re-recording mixers, Mike Dowson, Richard Pryke; supervising sound editor/sound designer, Glenn Freemantle; visual effects supervisor, Matthew Twyford; visual effects, Baselblack; special effects supervisor, Sam Conway; associate producer, Joanne Smith; assistant director, Lee Grumett; casting, Kate Dowd. Reviewed at Telluride Film Festival, Sept. 3, 2010. (Also in Toronto Film Festival -- Special Presentations; London Film Festival -- opener.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 104 MIN.
• With: Kathy - Carey Mulligan Tommy - Andrew Garfield Ruth - Keira Knightley Young Kathy - Isobel Meikle-Small Young Ruth - Ella Purnell Young Tommy - Charlie Rowe Miss Emily - Charlotte Rampling Miss Lucy - Sally Hawkins Madame - Nathalie Richard Chrissie - Andrea Riseborough Rodney - Domhnall Gleeson

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In A Dystopian Britain, Teens Grope Toward A Future

Mark Jenkins

What Now? Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield are students whose British boarding school isn't preparing them for the usual sort of post-secondary life. Alex Bailey/Fox Searchlight Pictures hide caption

Never Let Me Go

• Director: Mark Romanek
• Genre: Drama
• Running Time: 103 minutes

Rated R for sexual situations With: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley

(Recommended)

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'It's Too Dangerous'

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'What Happens To Children When They Grow Up'

'Don't Feel Scared'

A social drama in the guise of a science-fiction parable, Never Let Me Go proves a remarkably successful adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed 2005 novel . Director Mark Romanek and scripter Alex Garland do make a few missteps, but most of the movie's off-key notes result simply from the inherent limitations of squeezing a book's contents into a feature-length film.

The story revolves around Kathy, the narrator, and friends Tommy and Ruth. They've all met at Hailsham, a picturesque but autocratic boarding school in the British countryside, where Tommy is the target of bullies and Kathy tries to protect him. As they get older, their friendship inches toward romance -- until Ruth moves in on Tommy, and Kathy retreats.

Although Hailsham seems posh, its students are not privileged. They're being raised to serve their betters -- in a startling way that's revealed early in the film by a renegade teacher (Sally Hawkins). She's promptly replaced by the steely headmistress (Charlotte Rampling), but the truth she revealed hangs over her former students' lives.

The three kids are well played by Isobel Meikle-Small, Charlie Rowe and Ella Purnell, who vanish after a half-hour, when Kathy, Tommy and Ruth grow up to be, respectively, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley; upon graduating, these three meet other young adults of their class. They all discuss misleading rumors and pursue false leads, imagining how to alter their fates, and their attempts to be hopeful, subtly conveyed by Mulligan and the rest, are heartbreaking.

Ultimately, the pals drift apart, but Kathy takes a job that allows her -- after a long break -- to track down Ruth and Tommy. Their spirits raised by their reacquaintance, Kathy and Tommy dare to be optimistic again. But the best thing they can achieve is what Ruth already has: acceptance.

Once they learn what's expected of them, Tommy (Garfield) and Kathy (Mulligan) struggle with the knowledge of what's to come -- and their place in a rigid scheme. Alex Bailey/Fox Searchlight Pictures hide caption

Never Let Me Go is, in part, a tale of a young love. The title comes from a song on a cassette tape that the prepubescent Tommy gives Kathy, and to which she listens obsessively. But what Kathy really craves (as the novel makes more clear) is an ordinary life, with an everyday family. In adulthood, she must settle for a pale semblance of that.

Born in Japan and raised in Britain, Ishiguro is fascinated by how people adapt to life in repressive societies. (It's no coincidence that three of his six novels turn on World War II.) Whether home is Never Let Me Go 's ominous boarding school or the country estate of a British fascist (as in The Remains of the Day ), the novelist's characters do what is expected of them. In the novel, Kathy's final statement is that she drove off "to wherever it was I was supposed to be."

Garland's script changes Kathy's resigned words to a few sententious lines about collective humanity. But that unfortunate coda -- and Rachel Portman's strident score -- are among the movie's few outright blunders. The story does unfold too quickly on screen, so that the mood of mingled horror and regret barely has time to take hold. Given the scenario's bleakness, however, few viewers would want the movie to be longer.

The director, whose only previous feature is the one-dimensionally creepy One Hour Photo , makes evocative use of gray-skied locations. There, too, he's being faithful to the book, which features numerous off-season visits to beaches and seaside towns. And such wintry places are among the reasons the movie is so persuasive. Despite its fanciful premise, Never Let Me Go looks and feels utterly real. (Recommended)

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By Charles McGrath

• Sept. 8, 2010

MARK ROMANEK’S “Never Let Me Go,” which opens Wednesday, is the latest in the seemingly unstoppable, self-replicating tradition of films about cloning. It goes without saying that most of them look alike. But if you’re unfamiliar with the book on which it’s based, Kazuo Ishiguro’s luminous novel of the same name , or if you want to be surprised this time by some unusual genetic modification, you might want to stop reading right here. That’s because this movie deviates from the standard Hollywood premise that clones are by definition evil, debased versions of their originals. It also deviates from the lesser convention that clones, like the monstrous replacement 8-year-old in “Godsend” or the Arnold Schwarzenegger duplicate in “The Sixth Day,” must be named Adam.

“Never Let Me Go” develops pretty much the same premise as the flashy, overproduced Michael Bay movie “The Island”: it’s about people who are raised to be harvested for spare parts. But where Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor, in “The Island,” got to run around in white jumpsuits in what appeared to be a giant indoor mall, the stars of “Never Let Me Go” — Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley — inhabit a somewhat shabby-looking version of 20th-century England and wear hand-me-downs. Even the bracelet-monitoring device that keeps track of them seems clunky and pre-digital.

The director, Mr. Romanek, is probably most famous for his stylish, innovative MTV music videos, like the one for Michael and Janet Jackson’s “Scream,” which takes place on a flying saucer, or for the Nine Inch Nails song “Closer,” which begins with a disembodied heart still beating, thanks to some electrodes and an off-screen battery. His previous feature film, “One Hour Photo,” looked a lot like a video too, giving suburban America an eerie, futuristic sheen and rendering the photo department of a discount department store as if it were the white, antiseptic bridge of a Stanley Kubrick spaceship. But “Never Let Me Go” is a sci-fi flick that looks and feels like a nostalgia piece, more concerned with the past than the future.

“I toyed around with filming some futuristic buildings and stuff, but it never felt right,” Mr. Romanek said recently in a telephone interview. “I wanted to make a love story.”

The reason for this restraint is that Mr. Romanek, like virtually everyone else associated with the film, seems to view Mr. Ishiguro with something like awe. Mr. Ishiguro, whose earlier novel “The Remains of the Day” became an Oscar-nominated film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, is one of Britain’s most admired writers, and “Never Let Me Go,” which turns what could have been a pulp-novel plot into a heartbreaking meditation on individuality and mortality, has won for itself a particularly devoted following.

The story is not, at least on first glance, a particularly cinematic one. Like “The Remains of the Day” it’s told from the point of view of a somewhat limited narrator — in this case Kathy H., who works as a temporary “carer,” assisting people like herself as they make a series of “donations” — allowing their organs to be harvested, that is — before arriving at “completion.”

Kathy (played in the movie by Ms. Mulligan) writes in prose that is deliberately plain and unliterary, flirting even with banality at times, and the awful truth of her life, the purpose for which she has been bred, emerges only slowly and indirectly as she describes her life first at a secluded, innocent-seeming boarding school, then at a rural halfway house and finally at a series of hospices. She is less interested in the “Brave New World” implications of her life, which she tends to take for granted, than in recording the history of her friends Ruth and Tommy (Ms. Knightley and Mr. Garfield).

But the movie resists the temptation to heighten the sci-fi elements, and even improves on what may be the novel’s one flaw: a Hollywood-like scene near the end when various loose ends are melodramatically wrapped up. The screenplay is by Alex Garland, who is himself a novelist as well as a screenwriter (“28 Days Later,” “Sunshine”) and is also an old friend of the author.

He said recently that he called Mr. Ishiguro, asking for the rights, even before he had finished reading “Never Let Me Go.” “I never saw the book as a launch pad for something else,” he added, explaining that he promised Mr. Ishiguro veto power over the final script. “In terms of the film’s authorship, it was very clear in my mind that this was his. Why make it into a film then? I’m not sure there’s a good answer, except that it was a compulsion.”

In the end Mr. Ishiguro gave back his veto power, but Mr. Garland didn’t let on to anyone. “To be honest it was useful to me,” he said. “I could always invoke him — wheel him out as a weapon of mass destruction.”

Mr. Garland’s first novel, “The Beach,” was famously altered before it reached the screen — at one point the movie version even turns into a video game — and that’s what he wanted to avoid this time. “It was a nightmare, incredibly frustrating,” he recalled. “In the movie industry now they make changes almost out of a sense of duty.”

Mr. Romanek came to the project at the end of what he said was a “weird journey,” an eight-year period during which movie versions of Philip Gourevitch’s book “A Cold Case,” about a criminal investigation, and James Frey’s memoir “A Million Little Pieces” both fell through and he was also entangled for a while with “The Wolfman.” Along the way he married, had two children and, he said, “had a life for a while.” When Fox Searchlight presented him with “Never Let Me Go,” he didn’t hesitate, because he already knew and felt a deep affinity for the novel.

From the beginning, he said, he knew the film required “a very, very light hand,” and not a video approach. “They’re very different agendas,” he explained. “A pop video is meant to be a punchy piece of marketing.” He went on: “I have only and always wanted to be a feature-film director. I got seduced by being a big fish in a small pond, and I probably did it too long.” The virtue of his video experience, he added, is that the technical side of filmmaking now seems like second nature, leaving him free to concentrate on storytelling.

For the look of the film he went back to the novel and even tapped a little into the background of Mr. Ishiguro, who was born in Japan and didn’t move to England until he was 6. “He tends to hybridize a Japanese sensibility onto a British one, and so I looked at Japanese art and painting,” he said. “And I sort of applied some of that in a general sense of transience and impermanence — the beauty of the sadness of that. I was taken by the concept of wabi-sabi — the beauty of things that are old — and it became important to me to avoid all the science fiction tropes. Everything had to be old, faded — it had to have the patina of age. We were very rigorous about that.”

He continued: “The good news about working on this film is that it’s based on a masterpiece, something of real quality. Everyone respected that, and you had the sense that if you did it right, it could be pretty wonderful. The bad news is also that it’s a masterpiece, and comes with all the pressure of doing it justice, especially since it’s a book that has hit so many people on an emotional level. You want to get it right.”

Never Let Me Go Review

11 Feb 2011

104 minutes

Never Let Me Go

Is it a spoiler to be told which genre — however broadly defined — a story resides? If you think it is, then it’s probably best you skip to the star rating. Otherwise…

The shortlisting of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go for the Arthur C. Clarke Award provides a signpost (flashing, ice-blue neon, levitating mysteriously) that the book belongs to the sci-fi genre. Yet there’s nothing in the title, nor on the jacket, nor even in the back-page plot synopsis that suggests anything other than a coming-of-age romance, albeit one set in a darkly smudged version of mid-to-late 20th-century England. The narrative itself — delivered with truthful imperfection by one Kathy H. (Carey Mulligan) — offers no sense that anything is out of the ordinary (as indeed it isn’t, for the narrator), so its ‘true’ nature isn’t so much delivered in a shock twist as gradually, unintentionally revealed (by the character), like watching a disturbing Polaroid develop while held gingerly in your hands.

The same is true of this excellent film adaptation, scripted by Alex Garland (who, after 28 Days Later and Sunshine, is himself no stranger to sci-fi) and visualised by Mark Romanek, who has previously dealt with disturbing slow-developments in One Hour Photo. However, it is fair to describe their take on Never Let Me Go as ‘sci-fied up’ — which isn’t to say they’ve relocated Kathy H. to an orbital space-factory, or have her whizz over to Norfolk in a sky-skimming Spinner. Romanek keeps the look distinctly British and 20th century-mundane: cloud-shadowed beaches sloping out to brown-grey sea; triple-varnished, wood-floored assembly halls echoing with the squeaks of V-neck-jumpered schoolchildren; rain-dank teenagers slouching around hedge-rowed countryside in mud-slopped wellies. Period-wise, it’s effectively non-specific; on the surface this looks like a story which stretches from the 1950s to the ’90s, while only really spanning around 20 years.

Yet right at the opening Garland informs us of a major medical breakthrough occuring during the 1960s which has dramatically extended human life-expectancy. Up front we know this is not our world. And there are other little signifiers, not only in Ishiguro’s deceptively soft terminology (“carer”, “donor”, “completion”), but also in a neat addition from Garland which shows each of the Hailsham students wearing a wrist tag that they use to register their entry and exit to and from the building — a device they chillingly retain even after reaching adulthood.

It is spoiling nothing to say that Kathy and her friends Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley) are trapped. Yet it is to Ishiguro’s eternal credit that his exploration of how they deal with their entrapment does not precipitate some kind of searchlight-blinded action-adventure. This is hardly Logan’s Run. This is a character-driven drama, and Garland and Romanek faithfully keep it so. The idea of ‘escape’ doesn’t even occur to the protagonists; merely a desire to delay the inevitable. They are, like any of us, very much the product of their environment — more so, in fact — and just normal people at that (‘normal’, of course, being one of the most conveniently malleable of adjectives), so it’s not even relevant to bring up the broader moral ramifications of their situation, or for them to challenge its justness. There are deeper, more personal things at stake. Which is why Never Let Me Go is such a profoundly sad story.

Yes, what we essentially have here is a sci-fi weepie. And the fact that it works so bittersweetly is down not so much to Garland’s tender treatment of the concept as it is the casting of the main characters and the performances of Mulligan, Knightley and Garfield.

Off the page there was always the danger that Kathy H. could prove frosty and impassive. But Mulligan finds the warmth in Ishiguro’s creation and makes sure she glows on the screen. Somehow she conveys a sense of worldweariness from a person who has seen hardly anything of the world; a feeling of fierce passion from someone who has never known how to show it. Knightley, meanwhile, handles the lesser, and less sympathetic, role of Ruth well, with a sharpness that in other hands might be mistaken for shrewishness, and a selfishness that feels less like sheer meanness than an understandable defence mechanism. And between them — for this is a love triangle — is Garfield, perfectly capturing Tommy’s appealing awkwardness and tentative curiosity, a boy (and man) desperately trying to find the meaning in his inner life and somehow channel the power he believes there might be in emotional expression.

The outcome of their romantic entanglement, and their existential quandry, is heart-rending and distressing. And possibly, for some, frustrating. But it does leave you throbbing with all those big, troubling questions about what it really means to live.

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What it's about.

A dark and sophisticated slow-burning drama, Never Let Me Go is adapted from the highly acclaimed novel of the same name by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield as boarding school raised teenagers eager to explore the outside world when they learn a secret that will threaten their very existence. Anything more is a spoiler, watch it.

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Never let me go — film review.

Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go" is expertly acted, impeccably photographed, intelligently written and even intermittently touching, but the film is also too parched and ponderous to connect with a large audience.

By Stephen Farber

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 Carey Mulligan Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go

Expertly acted, impeccably photographed, intelligently written, even intermittently touching, the film is also too parched and ponderous to connect with a large audience. Fox Searchlight is hoping for awards consideration for the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro ‘s acclaimed novel, but this will depend on the reviews, which are likely to be split between those who consider the film a bleak masterpiece and others who find it straining so mightily for aesthetic perfection that it fails to provide a gripping narrative. In any case, the downbeat nature of the material will prove a challenge at the box office.

Ishiguro’s tale centers on the relationship of three young people — Kathy ( Carey Mulligan ), Tommy ( Andrew Garfield ) and Ruth ( Keira Knightley ). They have no last names because they are not ordinary people. Gradually, we learn that they are scientific specimens, created in the laboratory and raised in order to provide their organs to desperately ill patients. Ishiguro’s novel was praised for translating his typical moral and psychological concerns to a science fictional tale. “Never” is not set in the future but in a parallel universe where medical experimentation has been taking place without the knowledge of most ordinary people.

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The first problem with the movie is that it never completely lays out the logic of this parallel universe. The cloning process itself is shrouded in mystery. Screenwriter Alex Garland probably wanted us to share the limited knowledge of the characters, but this idea could have been maintained while providing just a touch more crucial clarity for the audience.

Another problem is that the theme of the dangers of medical experimentation is a rather tired mainstay of speculative fiction, going back at least to “Frankenstein,” one of the first horror stories to underscore the risks of tampering with Mother Nature. This theme is less startling than the filmmakers may realize, which would be less of a problem if the message were not delivered in such a solemn, portentous manner.

What does save the film intermittently is the poignancy of the love story, which is bolstered by the skill of the performances. The film opens at a boarding school, where three excellent child actors — Isobel Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell and Charlie Rowe – embody the three protagonists, and Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins contribute vivid supporting turns as teachers. Even at this early stage, a romantic triangle is brewing. Kathy and Tommy are drawn to each other, but the manipulative Ruth interferes and tries to claim Tommy for herself. When the characters grow up, the three stars perform impressively. Mulligan is luminous as the leader of the pack, and Garfield plays his more simple-minded character with marvelous expressiveness. Knightley manages to create a three-dimensional villain.

The most affecting theme of the film is the notion that even among these scientifically engineered creatures, love provides meaning to their shortened existence. Mulligan and Garfield play their parts with such conviction that we get caught up in their doomed romance.

The design of this familiar but slightly surreal universe is well rendered, and some of the visual compositions are haunting. But the pacing is fearfully slow, and the elliptical storytelling works against audience involvement. The issues of medical ethics are undeniably timely, but dramatically, the film, rather like the beautiful Frankenstein monsters on display, only comes alive in fits and starts.

Venue: Telluride Film Festival Opens: Friday, Sept. 17 (Fox Searchlight) Cast: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Isobel Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell, Charlie Rowe Director: Mark Romanek Screenwriter: Alex Garland Based on the novel by: Kazuo Ishiguro Producers: Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich Executive producers: Alex Garland, Kazuo Ishiguro, Tessa Ross Director of photography: Adam Kimmel Production designer: Mark Digby Music: Rachel Portman Costume designers: Rachael Fleming, Steven Noble Editor: Barney Pilling Rated R, 103 minutes

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Movie review: ‘Never Let Me Go’

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Going defiantly against the grain of a hyperbolic movie culture, “Never Let Me Go” is passionate about deliberation and restraint. Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley, the A Team of young British acting talent, this is a moving and provocative film that initially unsettles, then disturbs and finally haunts you well into the night.

Based on the celebrated novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, “Never Let Me Go” is suffused with the kind of longing for what cannot be that is implicit in its title. It deals on one level with a love that yearns against profound odds to speak its name, but in a deeper sense it offers provoking thoughts about what it means to be human, to have a life at all, and the kinds of unforgivable things that are done to preserve that at all costs.

If this sounds mysterious, it is meant to, for if “Never Let Me Go” is to be most effective, the heart of its story has to reveal itself as gradually and unhurriedly as possible. The film, to be frank, isn’t as patient as the book and, understandably worried about the attention span of movie audiences, offers more hints along the way than the novel did, but it still takes its time to divulge what it’s about.

Mark Romanek, who directed from a script by novelist Alex Garland, has a background — music videos, TV spots, the morose Robin Williams feature “One Hour Photo” — that would not seem to make him an ideal fit for this kind of nuanced material. But he has brought a great sureness and confidence to the project, turning out a film where the look of “Masterpiece Theatre” classicism is blended with an unmistakable but indefinable edge.

After choosing to start the film with an opening card that informs us that we are in a kind of alternate reality, a world that is both our world in the recent past and not our world, “Never Let Me Go” conveys the strong feeling that something is going on but refuses to tell us what it is.

As it turns out, “Never Let Me Go’s” determination to hold onto the secret as long as it can is a kind of misdirection. That mystery is not what the film is about at all, only its setting. What finally stays with us is the quiet drama surrounding unfulfillable yearnings that are the byproducts of life as it is lived there.

“Never Let Me Go’s” narrator introduces herself as Kathy H (Mulligan), someone who’s been “a carer” for nine years. Kathy talks with satisfaction about her work without really telling us what it is. Very soon the film flashes back to years earlier, when a 12-year-old version of herself (Isobel Meikle-Small) was a student at a classic English boarding school called Hailsham.

Though Hailsham (a name with a Dickensian echo) looks like the kind of place Mr. Chips would be at home, it has a peculiar feeling. Headmistress Miss Emily (a crackling good Charlotte Rampling) is very strict about laying down the law, about making sure the residents watch their health, don’t leave the premises and understand that “students of Hailsham are special.”

Since they are on the very cusp of teenagerdom, Kathy, her best friend, Ruth (Ella Purnell), and handsome young Tommy (Charlie Rowe) are more concerned with each other than what adults might be saying, even when a new teacher called Miss Lucy ( Sally Hawkins) clues them in on the reality of their lives.

After they become adults, the fraught relationship between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy becomes the focus, and is helped greatly by the expert acting of Mulligan, Knightley as the grown-up Ruth and Garfield as grown-up Tommy.

Knightley is always convincing as the manipulative Ruth, and Garfield, who stood out in the first part of the “Red Riding” trilogy and is slated to be the next movie Spider-Man, is even better as the pliable, docile Tommy. But the reason “Never Let Me Go” succeeds as well as it does is Mulligan’s work as Kathy.

Though Mulligan has not lacked for impressive roles — her Jenny in “An Education” received an Oscar nomination — the persuasive underplaying of her acting here exceeds anything she has previously done. There is a haunting, melancholy aspect to her performance, a wistful pride in the evanescent nature of Kathy’s work that perfectly expresses the sense of people missing out on something inexpressible that is at the center of the film as well as Ishiguro’s book.

Although “Never Let Me Go’s” extreme restraint will not please everyone, Garland’s screenplay actually increases the book’s romantic quotient, including making a change in the backstory of the song — persuasively sung by Jane Monheit — that gives the film its title. Still it’s the power of Ishiguro’s original conception that finally holds us, a view of life from the other side of the looking glass that comments powerfully on our situation as well.

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Movie Review: Never Let Me Go (2010)

• Marco Duran
• Movie Reviews
• One response
• --> September 14, 2010

Have you seen the 2005 Michael Bay film, The Island ? That bloated and overbearing film was constantly in the back of my head as I was watching Never Let Me Go . The premise similarities are striking, as is the fact that the film, The Island , and the book, Never Let Me Go , came out around the same time. However, the film itself was purported to be a rip off of Michael Marshall Smith’s 1996 book Spares and Philip K. Dick’s 1964 novel The Penultimate Truth so I guess the concept isn’t all that new. That this is in the same vein as the rest of these works is not a spoiler, nor did the filmmakers want it to be. I was fortunate enough to catch an interview with the writer of the novel, Kazuo Ishiguro, together with screenplay writer Alex Garland. Alex clearly stated that the story they wanted to tell was a personal one and they did not want to be coy and keep anything a secret. In fact, there is a scene about 20 minutes in where someone, subtly but without question, spills the beans. The story of this dystopian world, a place that would allow this type of thing to happen, is just the backdrop and not the story that they wanted to tell. The morals and ramifications of such decisions are not discussed, so just because the storyteller does not want to share the answers does not mean that the audience won’t be asking, and be hounded by the questions.

In his novel Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (also the writer of The Remains of the Day ) created a story of love, loss and hidden truths. In it he posed the fundamental question: What makes us human? Kathy (Carey Mulligan from An Education ), Tommy (Andrew Garfield from the upcoming The Social Network ) and Ruth (Keira Knightley from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise ) live in a world and a time that feels familiar to us, but is not quite like anything we know. They spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. When they leave the shelter of the school, and the terrible truth of their fate is revealed to them, they must also confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that pull them apart.

To return to my previous point, this is a very British film. Where The Island is full of huge passions, big explosions and all the delicacy of a flying brick, Never Let Me Go is filled with people and pauses that are pregnant with repressed and subdued emotions (the comedian Eddie Izzard put it best here ). That was one of the things that kept me at such a distance from the characters in this film. These people in this film underwent some very traumatic and emotional experiences and they go through it as calm as Buddhist monks. It wasn’t until near the end that someone has a genuine and well-needed outburst. Until that happened, I hadn’t realized how much of the characters’ unexpressed emotions were building up within me and how much I was waiting for that release, waiting for someone to be . . . well . . . human.

The other thing that kept me at a distance was what I brought up in the first paragraph. I can respect that the filmmakers did not want to focus on the sci-fi aspects, but by ignoring the new world they are building, they may just as well not have made it to begin with. People are completely and fundamentally selfish. Things need to be taken from people by force. Even by having the main trio of friends discuss or witness some sort of rebellion would have been plenty, just so we know that it exists and what happens to those who try. Without it though, I was constantly asking myself why these people were willingly going along with their unjust fates. However, listening to the writers after the screening, they brought up a great point. The slaves in America did not become free because they rebelled, but because those who enslaved them decided not to do so anymore. The Jews did not stop their own genocide because they rose up against their oppressors but because the Allies occupied Europe. Ishiguro stated in the interview, “People are remarkably accepting of their fate.” It seems a truthful, if cynical, worldview to say that people just don’t escape.

The standouts for this film were the trio of main actors as well as the three children who played their counterparts at a younger age. Izzy Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell and Charlie Rowe play Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield respectively during their time at Hailsham. For being so young, all three of them brought a great deal of depth and heart to their roles and I will be looking out for all three of them to see what they do with their talent. Keira Knightley has always been an enigma for me on screen. She never really seems to buy into any role she’s playing and it feels like she just goes along with the motions and says the words given her. In this film, especially in certain scenes, she rose slightly from that opinion although it was almost cruel to cast her next to Carey Mulligan. Carey is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses because she imbues all her characters with such pathos; she is electric. As far as Andrew Garfield goes, his character in this film was a bit of a spaz and bordered on being slightly mentally challenged. I don’t know if that was by writer’s design or by actor’s choice but I wasn’t really digging it. That said, Garfield is a force to be reckoned with. He is going to be Spider-Man, for Pete’s sake. All six of these performances are the reason to see Never Let Me Go . It is a tour de force from all actors involved; I just wish the story would have let me get closer to them.

Marco wrote, directed and produced the feature film Within. He has lived in the Los Angeles area his whole life. Top 10 Favorite Movies : Fight Club, The Fountain, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Oldboy, Pulp Fiction, Children of Men, City of God, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Shawshank Redemption and Memento. Top 5 Favorite Directors : Spike Jonze, Darren Aronofsky, Alfonso Cuaron, Quentin Tarantino and Billy Wilder. Top 3 Favorite Film Composers : Clint Mansell, John Williams and Howard Shore. You can follow his 140 character movie reviews on Twitter Or friend him on Facebook Or watch some short films of his on YouTube

Movie Review: The Help (2011) Movie Review: Another Earth (2011) Movie Review: The Perfect Host (2010) Movie Review: Summer Children (1965) Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) Movie Review: African Cats (2011) Movie Review: Mars Needs Moms (2011)

'Movie Review: Never Let Me Go (2010)' has 1 comment

September 15, 2010 @ 1:55 pm Cero

Sounds like a real tear jerker which means my wife will want to see this. Looks like I might enjoy it though.

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Never let me go.

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Common Sense Media Review

Young people ponder sex, love, life in downer sci-fi drama.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this romantic drama with sci-fi elements (which is based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro) is probably too offbeat to appeal to most teens, and its premise -- (possible spoiler alert) that the young people it follows have been specially bred to provide "spare parts" for "real" people -- is quite…

Why Age 17+?

At all of the three different ages they're shown -- preteens, teens, and twentys

Some cigarettes are found on the school grounds, and there's speculation that so

"Oh my God."

There's some anger and raging, and a boy accidentally slaps a girl. Also a coupl

Teens order Cokes in a diner.

Any Positive Content?

The essential idea behind the movie is that life, any life, is valuable. The cha

The main character, Kathy, is a sad creature; she seems lonely and lost and alwa

Sex, Romance & Nudity

At all of the three different ages they're shown -- preteens, teens, and twentysomethings -- these characters think and talk a great deal about sex. The preteens fall in love, hold hands, kiss, wonder about sex, and pine for each other. As teens, they actually do have sex (there's moaning and one partial naked breast), and they ponder the meaning of an adult relationship. A teen girl also looks through a nudie magazine that has several photos of naked female breasts.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Some cigarettes are found on the school grounds, and there's speculation that some of the preteens may have smoked them.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

There's some anger and raging, and a boy accidentally slaps a girl. Also a couple of somewhat gory hospital scenes. And there's a general sense of unease around the lives of these young people, who are trapped within the rules of a sinister organization.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive messages.

The essential idea behind the movie is that life, any life, is valuable. The characters learn empathy and kindness toward each other and only experience trouble when true love gets in the way of their destinies. Eventually the characters learn that, even though they may only have a short time on earth, their experiences are just as important as those with much longer lives.

Positive Role Models

The main character, Kathy, is a sad creature; she seems lonely and lost and always somewhat aware of everything she's missed in life. She's not very active and really hasn't much choice in anything. Eventually she experiences a brief moment of real love and learns to appreciate it; she understands that even a brief moment, fully lived, is worth a lifetime.

Parents need to know that this romantic drama with sci-fi elements (which is based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro) is probably too offbeat to appeal to most teens, and its premise -- ( possible spoiler alert ) that the young people it follows have been specially bred to provide "spare parts" for "real" people -- is quite unsettling. As the main characters grow from preteens to teens to twentysomethings, they talk and think a great deal about love and sex (there's some partial female nudity) before finally experiencing these things first hand ... and then things get even more complicated. There's very little language or violence, but the overall tone is sinister and depressing. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (7)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Sad and beautiful film about life, love, and death - thought provoking!

Disturbing movie, what's the story.

Kathy ( Carey Mulligan ) appears to work in some capacity in a hospital. In flashback, viewers learn about her past, growing up at a rather peculiar school. She falls in love with Tommy but loses him to her friend, Ruth. Before long, the children learn their real purpose ( possible spoiler alert ): They have been specially created for "spare parts" to be donated to "real," sick people. Years later, Tommy ( Andrew Garfield ) and Ruth ( Keira Knightley ) are still together. Rumors begin to circulate that there may be special treatment for couples who are truly in love, but Kathy volunteers as a "carer," which will take her on a different path from her friends. Will these young people discover the secret behind their lives, and can true love conquer all?

Is It Any Good?

Based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and directed by celebrated former music video maker Mark Romanek , this film is meticulously made and never less than interesting. It develops and sustains a specific, eerily effective mood that's hard to describe; it's somewhat dystopian but also somewhat like an alternate reality.

The three stars are captivating and charismatic, but that may not be enough to provide a real emotional connection in the movie's chilly, thoroughly depressing atmosphere. The overall science fiction idea hangs over the entire film like a dark cloud; it has no beginning or ending or center, and it's unchanging. Although the movie's ultimate point is to appreciate what little we're actually given (and also to value the real meaning of being human), it leaves little room for hope.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how the movie depicts sex. The characters are very curious about sex . Do they learn about it in healthy ways?

Do you think the movie's overall message is positive or negative? Why?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 15, 2010
• On DVD or streaming : February 1, 2011
• Cast : Andrew Garfield , Carey Mulligan , Keira Knightley
• Director : Mark Romanek
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Fox Searchlight
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 103 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : some sexuality and nudity
• Last updated : June 20, 2023

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Never Let Me Go (2010)

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Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins Mark Romanek Alex Garland, Kazuo Ishiguro (Novel) Rated R 103 Mins. Fox Searchlight

one of 2010's best acted film's based upon a masterful novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. We are introduced to Kathy, Ruth and Tommy in 1978 as preteens as Hailsham, a seemingly highbrow yet otherwise ordinary British boarding school. Tommy is the shy one who is awkward in virtually all ways and prone to fits of rage when he can no longer cope with feeling like an outcast. Ruth is already quite beautiful, quite popular and more prone to quietly seething jealousy and a bit of a taunting personality. Kathy, also the narrator of the film, is Ruth's best friend and the naturally compassionate one who seems to easily intuit the feelings of others and responds quite naturally in comfort.  She harbors feelings for Tommy, he mostly prospers within her maternal instincts. We catch on rather early on that despite what initially seems like an ordinary British boarding school, Hailsham is anything but ordinary and these three youths aren't living lives anywhere near ordinary. Before long, a new teacher, against all policies and procedures, reveals to them their true purpose and collective destinies in life. Of course, this teacher is quickly removed from Hailsham and life goes on. Flash forward to their late teens, the three are sent off to live in the "cottages" to prepare for a precious few years of faux adulthood masking their future participation within the National Donor Program, a program that, as the story goes, has wiped out all diseases and resulted in the majority of citizens now living well past the age of 100. There is no choice in the matter. The three are among many who are essentially bred to live their lives under the sheltered care and watchful eye of a nation that has raised them solely for the purpose of harvesting hope for the remainder of its more "human" humans. It is a difficult task to capture the reserved and measured world in which these children are raised, yet for the most part director Mark Romanek ( is up to the task and benefits from having a fine trio of leading actors to work with and, in fact, a surprisingly strong younger trio of actors who portray Kathy, Tommy and Ruth as youngsters. It is rather rare that three child actors so beautifully set the tone for the adult future of their characters, yet such is the case in as Charlie Rowe is vulnerable and heartbreaking as the fitful and troubled Tommy, Ella Purnell is innocently seductive and confused as a young Ruth and Izzy Meikle-Small is absolutely astounding in manner and tone, essentially a young Carey Mulligan, as the caring and sensitive Kathy. By the time we are introduced to Tommy (Andrew Garfield, Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Kathy (Carey Mulligan), their futures have already been set and their younger counterparts have painted their personalities perfectly.  The transition from youth to adulthood is so natural and authentic that the story itself becomes even more heartbreaking and deeply felt. There were several moments in that reduced me to tears, causing me to reflect long after the closing credits had rolled by upon the lives of these three and how they intertwined with such rich humanity despite the subtly inhumane circumstances in which they were living out their lives. The adult cast is exquisite, most notably Andrew Garfield's unforgettable and occasionally haunting portrayal of Tommy as a young man who never quite seems to grasp the world in which he lives and Mulligan's more refined yet no less impactful turn as a "carer," whose life as a donor is put off for a few years so that they can provide compassionate companionship to those who are actively donating until what is termed "completion." While she receives top billing in the film, Keira Knightley is the film's weaker link. As Ruth spirals into the donor program, Knightley's portrayal of a weakening Ruth remorseful for her separating the destined Tommy and Kathy feels a touch manufactured and lacks the naturalness of the remainder of the film. Charlotte Rampling and Sally Hawkins shine, as well, in supporting roles and are particularly powerful in a closing scene as the film begins to wind down. So, too, there are at least a couple spots in the film that feel a tad rushed and don't quite convince. For example, when it is so clear that all three of the characters have figured out virtually every aspect of their future and the falseness of most of the rumors they'd heard at Hailsham why would they continue to hold onto some vague notion that proving they were in love could result in a "deferral?" Minor performance issues with Knightley and modest story concerns aside, is a powerful and unforgettable film featuring a fine trio of young actors, an emotionally involving story with a near perfect blend hinting of science fiction with rich emotion and remarkable camera work from Adam Kimmel. Surprisingly, Romanek remains faithful to Ishiguro's literary vision and avoids Americanizing the story into a neatly wrapped cinematic package with a Hallmark greeting ending. Instead, we are treated to a profound journey involving three "people" never given the opportunity to realize how fully human they really were.

Den of Geek

Never Let Me Go review

Mark Romanek’s quietly beautiful adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, arrives in UK cinemas. Ryan tries his best to fight back the tears…

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Spoiler note: if you know nothing at all about the film, note that we discuss some known plot points here. If you want to see the film absolutely cold, please do bear that in mind before reading this review!

I’d heard from numerous reliable sources that Never Let Me Go was a bleak and potentially tear-inducing movie, so I resolved to go into the film with a heart of stone and a face of poker. With the screening room packed with hard-nosed critics, I feared an outburst of weeping and snivelling might be seen as a dreadful faux pas.

Written by Alex Garland and adapted from the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, Never Let Me Go is Parts: The Clonus Horror or Michael Bay’s The Island spliced with the genes of a BBC period drama.

Beginning in an alternate-universe 70s, it charts the friendship of a trio of youngsters, Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley), who have been bred and reared for their internal organs. Through the use of cloning, the world’s scientists have found a way of extending life spans and defeating disease, but at a terrible emotional cost to the separate class of humans created specifically to save the lives of others.

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While they enjoy a relatively comfortable, idyllic existence in a remote boarding school, they will, at some unspecified date in early adulthood, have their organs harvested over a series of operations, and ultimately ‘complete’, the film’s chilling euphemism for death.

Quite why scientists would provide such an expensive location for its legion of organ donors is never explained. After they’ve left school, they’re placed in an equally beautiful cottage straight out of an H E Bates novel. Isn’t this like keeping cattle in a health spa, only to turn them into beef burgers?

Presumably, these are corn-fed, free-range, organic clones for BUPA patients. Before they go under the knife, the recipients of these organs would probably ask, “Has the kidney been locally reared?”

Those on the NHS would presumably have to put up with their own range of battery-farmed clones, reared in wardrobes on a diet of own-brand cola and chicken nuggets.

These thoughts all coursed through my mind in Never Let Me Go ‘s earlier scenes, as though the sectors of my brain that deal with cynicism were trying to prevent me from appreciating the true sadness of the film’s premise. Gradually, however, director Mark Romanek’s dignified, low-key direction won me over, and I began to find myself genuinely invested in the fate of Never Let Me Go ‘s three leads.

As the inevitability of death becomes ever more present, the trio search, like the Replicants in Blade Runner, for a means of extending their lifespan, and what they discover at the end of their quest is as devastating as it is inevitable.

Although Never Let Me Go ‘s cast is uniformly excellent, from the young actors who play the adolescent group of donors, to Charlotte Rampling as a cold-hearted teacher, it’s Carey Mulligan’s understated performance that really sticks in the memory, providing a wonderfully tender narration to the film’s sad events.

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Garfield is good, too, as the kind-hearted, yet rather dim Tommy, and his furtive, tender moments with Mulligan are among the film’s finest. Knightley, meanwhile, glowers from beneath an astonishingly geometric fringe as Ruth, whose jealousy and fear fuels her own desire to win Tommy’s affection.

The innocent, naive nature of all three characters, and Tommy in particular, is wonderfully depicted. Their ignorance of the outside world and the day-to-day lives of regular people are discussed in hushed, reverent terms, and they cling, with desperate hope, to rumours that their childhood drawings may hold the key to a stay of execution.

Like Gareth Edwards’ excellent Monsters , Never Let Me Go makes sparing use of the sci-fi genre’s familiar trappings. Instead, it’s a gentle, uncomplicated relationship drama, and a genuinely moving meditation on death, and how its looming presence means that every love affair must end in tragedy.

When Never Let Me Go reached its final scenes, any traces of cynicism had been methodically chiselled away, and at its conclusion, I realised just how much I’d come to care for its characters’ fates.

As the various battle hardened journalists around me coughed into their hats or pretended to wipe a speck of dust away from their eye, I, too, began to feel a lump begin to form in my throat.

Never Let Me Go is a film about the true value of love, the fleeting nature of life and happiness, and the sad fact that even free-range clones face a lonely, terrible fate.

Never Let Me Go is in UK cinemas from Friday, February 11th.

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Ryan Lambie