Never Let Me Go (2010)

Never Let Me Go was a 3course meal of heartache and anguish. But luckily i was in the mood for that. 
On the surface, it seems like a film about a mixed boarding school but then you notice that none of the children mention their parents and they're afraid of leaving the school grounds. 
There are 3 characters- Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. Tommy is one of those people though bright and capable enough- he’s just not cut out for school. Kathy is perceptive and can see Tommy for what he's worth. Ruth just likes picking on Tommy and playing mind games with Kathy, her best friend.
When the children find out what their purpose is after school, it's just the most horrible heartbreaking discovery ever. It's horrible to think an hour through a film that all the characters, small children too are doomed and there's another hour to go. Then and film changes time and setting; it's maybe 6years later and the characters are young adults and have moved to cottages in the country. Tommy and Ruth are an item but we know that Kathy is still in love with him.

And the 3 lead adults are just superb. Carey Mulligan again proves she can do no wrong as Kathy playing a young woman who is the loneliest of a group of lonely people; someone who as well as suffering unrequited love, has to live with the worst knowledge. Andrew Garfield also hands in another assured performance as the naive and equally sensitive young man, Tommy. I can't think of anyone who can communicate despair like Andrew Garfield; he deserves every second of that Spiderman gig. 
And last but not least, Keira Knightly as Ruth. When was the last time you ever saw Keira Knightly be good in anything? Well she's on her game here. She manages to be manipulative and deceitfully horrible and yet vulnerable and identifiable. This might be the promise of more Keira Knightly in well-defined roles. Who’da thunk that? I know she’s been on a steady diet of stage acting- hey… if it’s working, more power to her.

Like I say, I found it quite the heart wrenching ordeal… in a good way. It’s almost unremittingly sad for 2hours but unrequited love is the wholemeal brown bread of paths. All ‘high-horse’ and no satisfaction.

But it’s also a film about dying young, which I’ve always seen as quite a romantic concept, in the ‘Jimi Hendrix’ or ‘Logan’s Run’-way but here is a story about people in their early 20’s losing their lives when they’re just coming together; when they’re just figuring out what they want to do in their lives.

I’m reticent to talk about the sci-fi/school background as it may be too spoilerific. I didn’t know much about the plot/book by Kazuo Ishiguro before I saw the film and I think because I didn’t revelations about the background were all the more poignant. Not that there is a very sci-fi element in this story, it’s more like a society change in a parallel universe but an interesting idea to wonder if society would accept the conceit of this film.

I watched Never Let Me Go (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies continues with Late Night Shopping (2001)...