Never Let Me Go (Review)

Imagine a life in which you are not seen as human, but as an object, or even, as is the case in Never Let Me Go, a form of storage closet. You exist not to live amongst society but to eventually be cut open and have your organs removed and given to those seen as normal. They take all they can from you until you die, and then you are useless. You were not born to live, but you were born so that others could. To me, this is an unfathomable reality: to not be given the chance to grow old, get a career, make any long term commitments. You sit around until they need you.

There are three who are the focus of Never Let Me Go, and their names are Kathy (Carey Mulligan, who narrates), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield, who will apparently be in everything for the next few years). They all attended Hailsham, a boarding school which, as it turns out, is meant only for donor children. They are cut off entirely from society as if they were a more modernized version of The Village. The modern world is all around them but exposure to it is frowned upon.

In a different film the donors might attempt an action-packed escape in search of a normal life, but the donors of Never Let Me Go have, to a point, accepted their sad fate. This is the road society has chosen for them, and turning away would be against what they have been told. They are very matter-of-fact when discussing their lives as donors. They aren’t happy about it, but it’s who they are. An alternate option has never been provided for them, and when they see the outside world they are perplexed.

In a way, their entire lives they are trapped in a preteen mentality, as that naiveté is what keeps them going. Only when exposed to the horrors around them do they begin to become adults, and truly regret the lives they are missing out on. They dream of falling in love, living a full life, but that is not the lives they were given. Donors are prisoners within their own existence.

Each and every performance in Never Let Me Go threatens to tear your heart out. Mulligan’s Kathy is the picture of innocence, spending much of her time dreaming of things she cannot have, including Tommy, who spends much of the film dating Ruth. This love triangle drives the story forward, and provides the lone promise of a normal life for these donors. Tommy as a boy was emotionally unstable and prone to outbursts, but much of his adult life he internalizes and buries his fear, regret and anger at the life that was planned for him before he was even born.

Never Let Me Go is a film of such incredible ambition that it couldn’t help but misfire a bit towards the end, and the final narration is one of the film’s more aggravating features, as it spells out the themes far too plainly. The subdued emotional power of the first three quarters doesn’t last the entire finale, but the mark this film leaves on you is unforgettable. Mark Romanek, a music video director making his first feature film since One Hour Photo, creates a film that looks great as well as feels authentic. This is a science fiction film without giving in to the usual genre clichés.

It has come to my attention that the hailed original novel by Kazuo Ishiguro was much more focused on keeping the story’s various secrets hidden. I, however, applaud the lack of unforeseeable twists. Never Let Me Go unfolds its story slowly and methodically, and it doesn’t try to hide anything from the audience. It provides its tale for you to digest and carry with you.

Perhaps the most notable sequence for me is when the tempers start to boil over. Two donors claim to have seen Ruth’s “original” in a nearby town. It turns out that it was not her, and after Ruth begins to throw a fit. They struggle with the very nature of their existence, which is incredibly important to everybody but them. Because they are alive, there must be some purpose for them, right? Unfortunately not. They are bred and nurtured carefully, just so they can ultimately be opened up, emptied out, and thrown away.

Rating:  (out of 4)