Film Review: Never Let Me Go

It’s really hard to sit through a film like this after a film like The King’s Speech, because all you can think about is how much this production lacks in comparison to that one. I wish I had time to stay for The Illusionist tomorrow night, but I have to be headed back home tomorrow, so this is sadly the note that my stay in Portsmouth is ending on. The film follows three clones in an alternate timeline where human beings are raised and then harvested for their vital organs.

It’s a very strange premise, and this film does nothing to give it any more humanity. I’d heard going into this movie that it had divided critics between who hated it and who loved it, and I was really hoping that I’d be one of the latter. Unfortunately, this film is as cold as I feared it would be. There’s so much at fault with this picture that I can’t fathom how some people loved it. After the screening of The King’s Speech, the auditorium burst into applause, but this film ended to indifferent silence. Nobody cared, least of all me. I found it a chore to stay awake during this one, because you can immediately tell where it’s going.

The opening however many minutes that take place at the Hailsham school are completely dull, and it just drops you into the strange premise, deserting you and not giving any help. Imagine Hogwarts from the first two Harry Potter films, but without magic or anything remotely intriguing. That’s Hailsham, and I’m not underselling it. The film does get a bit more interesting as it goes on, but by that time I had lost all faith in Never Let Me Go. The “tragic” ending felt anything but, and left me a pit of my gut only because of the nearly two hours that I wasted watching it.

The performances were mostly as dull as the characters, which were mostly one dimensional at best. Carey Mulligan shines the most as Cathy, but is weighed down by the ridiculousness of the story and just the slow run down of events. Don’t expect a nomination for her in this competitive year for the category. Andrew Garfield gives the first performance of his that I genuinely didn’t like, and his character is just completely ignorant and irritating. So is Keira Knightly in her role, but she’s barely even there. The music by Rachel Portman felt recycled from some old film that was never made. The cinematography didn’t do anything special. I could go on about what I didn’t like about this film, but in the end, Never Let Me Go is just another boring Oscar-bait British drama that doesn't make you feel a thing.

C-