Never Let Me Go

"Never Let Me Go", based on the brilliantly subtle novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, opens with an understated poignancy that carries through to the film's conclusion. A cohesively monochromatic production design, combined with skillful use of light, deepens the vague untethering from familiar reality.

We are introduced to an English coed boarding school, run by none other than a rather creepy Charlotte Rampling (great casting!), and attended by children who nearly glow with health and eagerness. There is a uniformity in response by the children, and an ignorance on the children's part of the world beyond the school's walls that suggest something is amiss.

All is revealed in layers, nuances, suggested rather than pronounced. The hushed quality of steady revelations furthers the haunting poignancy, as well as a sense of hopelessness and pathos. There is a claustrophobic squeeze of looming mortality. Are these children human? And how is humanity and self-awareness defined by beings who are created for a specific utility?

Casting and performances are superb. Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightly portray a trio of school mates who proceed together into young adulthood. Mulligan's features and expressions ideally suit her character's quiet desperation. Knightly has an admirably angry edge to her beauty rarely seen in her previous work. Garfield, as the only person who expresses rage at his condition directly, yet holds his rage in store, is particularly memorable. The ever incredible Sally Hawkins, as a rebelliously kind teacher, wakes everything up just a necessary bit.

"Never Let Me Go" is set in a recent and recognizable past, with an internal twist that wobbles reality's axis. Costumes, set design and cinematography interweave to create a consistent world. The musical score is unfortunately insistent to an annoying degree.

The film succeeds by what is suggested and unsaid, and by the trio of characters' struggle to be dimensional. That is the point, in a way. How do we define ourselves if our purpose in living has been externally set? "Never Let Me Go" is a meditation on mortality, a tone poem of human interaction, all from the realm of sadly believable interference.