NEVER LET ME GO : archive from 16th April 2011.

I saw 'NEVER LET ME GO' this week not knowing exactly what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised by this English set Sci-Fi drama weepie! This is a thought provoking story written for the screen by Alex Garland based on the popular 2005 novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Directed by Mark Romanek. Made for US$15M it grossed just US$10M in global Box Office receipts and a further US$2M or so in DVD sales, as well as seven awards wins and a further 25 nominations from around the traps.

The film is set over three time lines - the first tells us that in the early 50's a medical breakthrough meant that the human life span could be extended beyond one hundred years. As the film opens the narrator is standing behind a glass partition looking at a man being operated on in hospital. The woman is 28 year old Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and she is looking at Tommy (Andrew Garfield). She thinks about her early childhood at the seemingly idyllic English Boarding School, Hailsham, in the 70's and her more recent adult life since leaving there. Hailsham however, was no ordinary school - the traditional subjects taught were secondary to artistic expression - drawing, painting and such like - the best of which were hung on display in The Gallery, overseen by a mystery woman known only as Madame (Nathalie Richard).

A new teacher arrives, Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins) who one day secretly advises the children that they exist only as 'donors' for their organs to be transplanted into those they were cloned from originally, or others that have the means to do so. The harsh reality that the children will therefore 'complete', or die at a relatively young age is then realised. Miss Lucy is promptly dismissed from the school by the Headmistress (Charlotte Rampling). As time passes and the children resign themselves to their fate Kathy and Tommy develop feelings for one another, but Tommy then falls for Ruth (Keira Knightley) another student at the school. Despite this the three friends form a strong bond.

Now aged 18 the three friends are rehoused into cottages on a farm and allowed out on occasional day trips. They learn from others at the farm of a 'deferral' programme whereby donors who are in love, and that this can be proven, can gain a temporary reprieve from organ donorship. Tommy believes that the artwork hung back in The Gallery at Hailsham was so that the authorities could determine if the young students had a soul and could truly feel emotion. Tommy and Ruth's relationship becomes stronger and so Kathy needing to distance herself leaves, having secured a role as a 'carer' for those clones going through the process of organ donorship. For her this is a temporary reprieve from the fate that she knows awaits her too.

Fast forward, and it is now ten years hence and Kathy has not seen Tommy or Ruth in those intervening years. By chance one day Kathy still working as a carer meets Ruth who by now is frail having made two organ donations already. They find Tommy who is also weakened from his own donorship, and the three of them drive to the seaside to relive some former memories and get reacquainted. Ruth admits that she knew that Tommy & Kathy should always have been together and she seeks their forgiveness, and also announces that she believes she can make amends, and having located Madame they can seek a 'deferral' for Tommy and Kathy to be together. Soon after this Ruth dies on the operating table during a further organ removal.

Tommy and Kathy meet with Madame who advises that there never was a 'deferral' programme, and the purpose of the artwork was to determine if the children had souls at all, and that Hailsham was the last school of its kind to examine the ethical implications of the donor programme. As they leave to return home in the car, Tommy asks for Kathy to pull over and in a fit of rage breaks down. The two embrace knowing that their fate is sealed. In the closing sequence we return to where it all began - with Kathy looking down at Tommy on the operating table, and as he smiles to her, and she smiles back knowing too that her time is now limited.

This is a surprising thought provoking film that is well crafted, well acted and considered in its approach to the subject matter. Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough also star, and for a small little British film it punches above its weight, and is well worth searching out now on DVD or download.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-