Never Let Me Go87Cast: Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan.
Director: Mark Romanek Rating: R, for some sex and nudity Running time: 98 minutes
Never Let Me Go is gorgeous. And depressing. It’s exquisitely acted. And depressing. It’s romantic, profound and superbly crafted, shot with the self-contained radiance of a snow globe. And it’s depressing.
It’s depressing if you’ve read the book, which I loved, and it’s depressing if you haven’t. So long as a print still exists somewhere of Requiem for a Dream, it is not the biggest downer ever made. But it comes close.
Directed by Mark Romanek (OneHour Photo), and based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s haunting 2005 novel, it stars Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan as Ruth, Tommy and Kathy, graduates of aperfect, starchy English boarding school, the sort of place where lads and lasses learn their lessons in gray woolen sweaters.
In 1978, the three youngsters form a triangle of friendship and nascent desire in a carefully ordered setting removed from the outside world.
Their story is dystopian for one specific reason - a horror the book divulged, in snippets and jots, as welearned about Kathy’s important work as a “carer.”
By contrast, the film blows much of the mystery early on, opening with a preface and a quick flash-forward to unspeakable sadness near the end.
Viewers may ( understandably) question why no one in this somber British otherworld tries to escape their circumstances, but destiny - and the will to accept it - are two of the film’s more rarefied subjects. Graceful surrender is a tall order for actors of any age. Mulligan and Garfield, young stars with old souls, display a knowing sweetness that gives the film its broken heart.
MovieStyle, Pages 29 on 10/29/2010