Review: Never Let Me Go

Film Reviews Sat, 23 Oct 2010 Written by Paul Kelly
Editor rating
 
 2.0 User rating
 
 0.0 (0)
Never Let Me Go - directed by Mark Romanek

Never Let Me Go is a new film from One Hour Photo director / writer Mark Romanek, based on the 2005 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro about a dystopian British society where people are cloned in labs for organs for seriously ill patients.

Starring Carey Mulligan (An Education), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) and Keira Knightly, the film is a dark tale revolving around the notion that people are essentially cloned and grown to provide organs to critically ill beneficiaries.

Although human in nature, emotion and origin, the ‘donors’ are shielded from the outside world and maintained in healthy condition in order to donate critical organs and, after an average of 3 donations, ‘submit’ to death.

Wonderfully shot, with often dark and sparse settings adding some beautiful touches to the film, the film is also extremely well-acted by most of the cast.

One exception is Knightly, who is a curious choice for her role and seems to over-act in place, often snatching away the good work of the director and remainder of cast. Mulligan and Garfield (who, incidentally, was awarded the Black Pearl award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival for his role in this film) are sublime and perfectly suited to the role.

The story plods along, and the audience is never really stretched about the subject matter, essentially the farming of humans for a purpose, which is disappointing. The references that do exist are both direct and inferential, but not in a way that requires any substantive thought.

One feels that Romenek has created something special from little to work with, and Knightly aside, the film’s cast does an outstanding job with some difficult dialogue along the way.

But, something is missing. Perhaps it’s best to make up your own mind, but this reviewer found the patience and subtlety of the storytelling undone badly in many places by mediocre dialogue and curious casting - substantially distracting from what is essentially a good story.

NEVER_LET_ME_GO_TRAILER_WEB


Editor review

A good, but somewhat disappointing, fim

Rating:
 
 2.0
Reviewed by triplew.me
October 23, 2010
 
Last updated: October 23, 2010
Although there's nothing fundamentally wrong with this film from a technical or storytelling perspective, there are some jarring areas that prevent it from getting a higher rating. Knightly's emotional side is a little contrived and upsets the flow of the film, so too does the overtly emotional dialogue in places. A good watch, but perhaps could've delivered a little more in its execution.
 
 

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