Carey Mulligan, Keira Nightly, and Andrew Garfield star in Kazuo Ishiguro's dystopian drama, NEVER LET ME GO. This movie adaptation of the Japanese's celebrated novel (which I haven't read yet) is about three close friends who grew up in an idyllic and isolated boarding school in postwar Britain, and eventually finding out that they are actually clones created to become organ donors to ill human beings, and therefore facing death once "completed."
The film delves into the relationship between the three; the tension, jealousy, love, and the close bond they shared, from childhood to adulthood until their inevitable tragic fate in this alter-world that Ishiguro has created. The film, however, does not look nor feel like a sci-fi, but a melancholy period movie that begins in the early 1950's and ends in the late 1970's.
With Kathy (Mulligan) as the main character, narrating her thoughts and observations to us, NEVER LET ME GO is lugubrious and overstretched. There were unnecessary long shots that could very well bore the audience. Nevertheless, the tragic, devastating existence of these poor creatures is still palpable throughout the film.
The only beauty of the film comes from its resonating sadness, the undercurrent of pain and sorrow while they go on with their controlled lives and their friendship...all the more enhanced by the lonely painting-like shots of suburban Britain.
2 out of 5 stars
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