Just a warning: we’re going to talk about the ‘big secret’ of the film right from the start because firstly, it’s fully revealed about half an hour in, and secondly, while it informs the world the characters inhabit it’s not the primary dramatic arc of the film. So if you’d rather go in fresh, you’d probably best stop here, but for the rest of you, read on.
Mark Romanek’s third feature, eight long years after “One Hour Photo” (and shortly after his aborted attempt to make “The Wolf Man”) finds the director adapting Kazuo Ishiguro’s celebrated novel “Never Let Me Go.” The story is largely set in an adjusted 1980s, a couple of decades after medical science has discovered a way to farm fully functioning human beings to be used later as organ donors for the rest of society, extending life expentancy to over 100 years by allowing diseased vital organs to be replaced. We open at Hailsham, a boarding school where these future donors are raised and educated in a seemingly idyllic setting that is designed to ensure their bodies remain healthy. It’s here we meet the younger versions of whipsmart and sensitive Kathy, emotional and vulnerable Tommy and the confident but uncertain Ruth (all played excellently by child actors Izzy Meikle-Small, Charlie Rowe and Ella Purnell). While Kathy and Ruth are friends, it’s Tommy who both forges the group together and then wedges them apart. The initial budding romance by between Kathy and Tommy is eventually smothered and severed by the more forward advances of Ruth, and by the time the three are young adults and ready to leave the hallowed grounds of Hailsham, Tommy and Ruth are in a fully committed relationship.
As donors, the three aren’t integrated into society but instead are shuttled to The Cottages, where they meet others from different schools and where they all await their time until they will make their first organ donation (the donor usually averages three before they pass away). But unlike Hailsham where they were told urban legends to keep them from roaming off school grounds, at The Cottages, they are allowed day trips into neighboring villages and cities. As they settle into life in the cottages a rumor comes their way about donor “deferments” that will allow couples who are in loveto put off their first donation for a few years. It sounds promising but the trio don’t believe quite believe it, considering that much of what they were told at Hailsham doesn’t turn out to be true. Time move forwards and Kathy eventually volunteers to be a Carer, sort of a like a social worker for donors — someone who works with them when they begin donating — and eventually all three part ways. Years later they find each other again and an (obvious) revelation gives them some last hope for something meaningful in their otherwise tragically pre-destined lives.
To be certain, Romanek has made a exquisite-looking film. Working with cinematographer Adam Kimmel, “Never Let Me Go” is an absolutely gorgeous watch. But the director of the equally impeccably shot “One Hour Photo” may find himself fielding some familiar criticisms; “Never Let Me Go” lacks a pulse. While all the pieces are put in place and then executed with precision, Romanek can’t quite seem to get us to fully invest in the characters and that may be due to questions that are raised only to be either ignored or swept under the rug.
Simply put, the premise, while clever, leaves too many obvious threads unexplored and unexplained. While we understand why at Halisham the trio were subtly terrorized into keeping in line, once they leave and see television and see what the outside world has to offer, it’s inexplicable that they have no ambition other than the life that has been prescribed for them. And while that is certainly the thematic point Romanek is driving home — that many of us in our regular lives do the same thing (emphasized by a deafeningly clunky closing monologue by Kathy) — the dour criticism of humanity isn’t earned, and is slightly condescending. In the roughly two decades of the donor program that the film covers, there were no runaways? No rebellions? No one ever tried to remove or destroy the bracelets used for tracing them? These are simple questions that the audience is asked to overlook but are too big to simply put aside.
It also doesn’t help that the characterizations are thin. As the man at the center of the love triangle, Tommy is probably one of the least compelling love interests we’ve seen in a while. In the early part of the film he appears positively dense, and his goofy childlike innocence mostly disappears in the latter half, to be replaced with flashes of brilliance; overall the magnetism which draws both Kathy and Ruth to him is not really in evidence. But if it’s lacking on the page Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield do fill in the lines and shade their parts to the best of their abilities. That said, their characters are largely one-note; Mulligan, as Kathy, wears the same pained expression on her face for much of the film, while Garfield’s Tommy enacts a scene from his childhood at both the beginning of the film and again near the end of the film, in what is supposed to be a poignant moment, that doesn’t quite work. Knightley’s Ruth does run a bit deeper, but her initially fiery spirit ending up contrite in the latter reels feels somewhat jarring. And in case you’re wondering, Sally Hawkins’ role in the film is minor; she’s gone from the picture before the first half-hour is out.
“Never Let Me Go” is austere to a fault. As viewers we yearn for something, anything to shake up the characters and the film; to move it from just being beautifully staged to being deeply felt. There is no doubt that Romanek is a fine craftsmen, but he has yet to figure out what’s inside his beautifully constructed films. “Never Let Me Go” will please your eye, but disappoint your heart. [B-]