At Hailsham academy, Kathy (Mulligan), Ruth (Knightley) and Tommy (Garfield) live in a world of Orwellian euphemisms — they are “special” children predestined to make “donations” until “completion.” While not as subtle as Kazuo Ishiguro’s masterful novel, Mark Romanek’s adaptation of Never Let Me Go gradually reveals the grim fate that awaits these students, offering clues. Why all the scanners? Why won’t the delivery men ever look the kids in the eye?
While the believability factor of Ishiguro’s premise is debatable, both the film and the book do a magnificent job of making his dystopian nightmare seem real. The world these characters find themselves in is an eerie reflection of our own — one that is as distorted as it is recognizable. Despite an overuse of superficial symbolism, the film’s muted, restrained aesthetic haunts viewers in ways that overtly futuristic sci-fi films can’t. Never Let Me Go’s dystopia is not one of the future, but one of the past (and by nature the present).
However, the film’s greatest misstep is the underdevelopment of character relationships. The talented trio of young British actors (especially Carey Mulligan) is magnificent, but the screenplay removes much of the novel’s complexity in favor of a trite linear narrative about immature love. The young women are primarily defined by their pursuit of Tommy, with Ruth being reduced to the jealous girl who keeps her boyfriend away from his true love.
With so much emphasis placed on this love triangle, the characters’ fascinating interactions with the outside world aren’t given enough screentime. There are brilliant moments in which they wrestle with their fates and seek answers, but they go by too quickly and result in a film that never quite finds a comfortable pace.
The fact that these young adults are ghostly shells is understandable given their repressed and isolated upbringings. Yet their distance and lack of development are ultimately what prevent us from truly mourning their tragic fates. Art, in Ishiguro’s novel, is said to reveal the soul. And yet, as a work of art, soul is precisely what this film adaptation doesn’t quite have enough of.
NEVER LET ME GO Directed by: Mark Romanek Starring: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley Rated R, 103 min. Ritz Five 3.5 Stars
