'Never Let Me Go' is a strange movie... Despite boasting the finest in young british acting talent with Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley & Andrew Garfield leading the way, it felt so much like a television drama from what I had seen and heard beforehand that as I sat down in my chair it baffled me to be watching it on a cinema screen rather than on my sofa at home.
Shot beautifully to show the countryside and secluded lives that our three main characters live, it looks fantastic; wide shots of fields, trees, beautiful countryside house and farms having all the makings of a cinematic vision of many well known BBC dramas. However 'Never Let Me Go' has a very dark and unique secret hiding within it's hour and a half running time; something that was foreshadowed in the opening scene and twists its way into plain sight around the mid-point. It is for this reason that 'Never Let Me Go' should be seen as a film as it's secret is something that makes it stand out above television as a message and a vision of our world.
To spoil the surprise would be a criminal mistake on my part, and as such it makes the movie quite difficult to summarise; the cleverness of the story is that the twist is the entire plot at the same time. The reason why watching the opening half hour feels a little confusing is that the audience member (unless you read the book) doesn't actually know what the plot is, and looking at promotional footage beforehand gives you no clues at to exactly what is about to come your way.
What I can tell you is that I guarantee the intrigue surrounding 'Never Let Me Go' is worthy of the journey you take to get there; and essentially beyond that plot-line there is a story of three people who all love each other, in a romantic and also not romantic way. Both of the women have desires to be with Garfield's Tommy, but they never have the same type of desire for him. Knightley's Ruth needs to never be alone and finds the solace in Tommy whilst Mulligan's Kathy is truly in love with a man who she feels she never can be with. Expertly acted by the leading trio, it breaks your heart one scene at a time and as the outcome of the friendship between the three becomes clearer you feel saddened by what the human-race as a whole could become yet also hopeful in just who we can be individually as humans...
In a sense 'Never Let Me Go' is about mortality and whether we should accept it or in fact try to fight it, told through the eyes of the victims of our desires as a race to fight mortality. It hurts to think of what people like Kathy, Tommy & Ruth would go through because of what the human race does in a world not to de-similar from our own.
To see this play out is a harrowing and moody, yet beautiful and bizarrely hopeful film which is a must see for anyone who feels the need to remind themselves that mortality is already decided, and that friendship and love are what we should be fighting for.
7.5/10
Adam
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