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FeedMovie Review: Never Let Me Go
Films opening this week:
It's Kind of a Funny Story - Amherst Dipson - REVIEW
Jack Goes Boating - North Park Dipson
Life as We Know It - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Hollywood, Quaker Regals; Flix
My Soul to Take - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade; McKinley Mall Dipson; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Hollywood Regals; Flix; Transit Drive-In
Never Let Me Go - Amherst Dipson; Eastern Hills Dipson
Secretariat - Maple Ridge; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Hollywood, Quaker Regals; Flix; Transit Drive-In
It has been eight years since Mark Romanek last gave us a feature film—the decade since One Hour Photo has been filled with a spate of music videos and false starts. So when I first watched the trailer for Never Let Me Go, I thought it seemed an odd choice—and what seems like a conventional young adult romance between three sheltered children doesn’t take long to reveal its hidden truths. Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel creates a world where illness has been wiped out. Cancer, disease, and for all intents and purposes, early death, have been cured; 1952 is the beginning of this brave new world and by 1967 life expectancy reaches beyond 100 years. So, what we discover is that the children at the center of this dramatic thriller aren’t merely lovebirds growing up, they are also the cost of the cure.
Young Kathy and 12-year-old Tommy are the initial lovebirds. Bullied and ignored, Tommy finds he has no one else but this girl, who always shows him affection despite his lack of artistic merit or athletic skill. But once they leave their sheltered boarding school for the similarly cloistered Cottages, Kathy's friend Ruth swoops in to take Tommy, beginning a long-lasting relationship. Nonetheless, the three are inseparable, tentatively learning about what is outside their school’s walls and the future that has been set before them from the moment of conception.
The children are being raised for a specific purpose; two occupations as options for them once their respite has ended—the choice isn’t within their control. A new teacher, Sally Hawkins’s Miss Lucy, feels it the obligation of the adults to open their eyes to this truth early, but as you’ll see when she does, the kids’ don't react with much surprise. Kathy (Izzy Meikle-Small), Ruth (Ella Purnell), and Tommy (Charlie Rowe) continue to be children, a more rapid progression of education the only thing separating them from our own adolescence. Sex-Ed is taught early, relationships are formed with more love than might appear normal for their age, though they still need lessons in ordering at restaurants and exchanging money for goods, little things we take for granted.
Once the actors change into their young adult forms, (Kathy becoming Carey Mulligan, Ruth to Keira Knightley, and Tommy to Andrew Garfield), questions of mortality and the the existence/importance of the human soul are raised. Love, companionship, and duty become the important themes of screenwriter Alex Garland. We see the complicated relationship of these three best friends as they travel a heartbreaking road—seeking any loophole to escape for just one more day together. Just like all stories of utopia, however, their underlying dystopic infrastructure begins to show through, bringing with it hard choices and tough answers. Idyllic perfection is only made possible by the sacrifice of those less fortunate—it’s true in times of war and it is true here.
A political message appears when the revelation of what’s happening is discovered, but I don’t believe that’s Romanek’s main intention. It is overpowered by the phenomenal performances by Mulligan, Garfield, and Knightley, and the film's exploration of humanity’s compassion and ability to love unconditionally. The film never denies the infinite worth of the soul, that one intangible which makes us human, bonding us emotionally and psychologically together. We all bleed, we all feel loss, and we all die. The devastation of that reality should never be taken lightly.
Never Let Me Go 10/10
photography:
[1] L to R: Domhnall Gleeson, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrea Riseborough in NEVER LET ME GO; Photo by Alex Baile
[2] L to R: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield in NEVER LET ME GO; Photo by Alex Bailey
