When you’ve been bred to die, your choices are limited. In Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek, three friends living in dystopian Britain discover the nature of their lives, without much attest.
Kathy (Carey Mulligan, also the narrator), Ruth (Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) are students at Hailsham, a boarding school tucked away behind pastures and fences. A love triangle forms between the three at a young age, flipping sides throughout the storyline.
The main characters are made to be healthy, strong and well-educated, only to grow up never passing their mid-‘20s. The film is haunting, and sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater.
The story begins with flashes of exchanged looks of love, longing and sadness from the outside of an operating room. While seemingly brash in subject manner, the idea of the essential, long and premeditated end comes off as clean and unquestionable.
Leading up to the inevitable, there is hardly a question raised by any of the characters. You wonder if the characters are as uninformed as the audience.
Due to directorial choices, the purpose of the students is not clearly defined, but hidden in hints scattered as to what’s really happening. This, unfortunately, is one of the only things that keeps the film moving. Looking for the next clue becomes a game that no one wins.
Color is almost completely absent in the film: the sky, grass, water and faces of the characters gray at all times. The actors are what shine through, each a shadow of tragedy, apparent in the glimpses of depth the audience can see.
Keira Knightley, who has been present only in shorts and smaller movies since the Oscar-winning Atonement, makes a strong return as the jealous, possessive Ruth. Carey Mulligan, as the passive and shy Kathy H., is more than impressive in her way to overtake the audience with a half-smiling way of conveying the feeling that she knew all along the fate of it all-—like she knows how the love, jealousy and betrayal that surround the film will dissipate. Newcomer Andrew Garfield secures his place in Hollywood as “Tommy,” the rope in the subtle tug-of-war Kathy H. and Ruth play throughout their lives together. Garfield distinguishes himself from The Social Network’s nice guy Eduardo Saverin, who he will likely be associated with for years to come due to all of the Oscar buzz surrounding that film.
The story itself is not light, and rather hard to grasp. The insight comes after you’ve left, and are lying awake comparing the fate of these damned children and those who live as they should, supposedly normally, playing out the cycle of life and death. What is the difference?
Never Let Me Go is playing at the United Artists Tara Cinemas, located at 2345 Cheshire Bridge Road. The film will run until Tuesday, Oct. 26, and may be extended at the theater’s discretion. For showtimes or more information, call 404-634-5661 or visit www.fandango.com.
