Never Let Me Go is a poignant love story, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling, Booker Prize short listed novel of the same name. As children, Ruth (Keira Knightley), Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield), spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.
Never Let Me Go is a British dystopian science fiction drama film based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Mark Romanek from a screenplay by Alex Garland. Never Let Me Go is set in an alternate history and centres on Kathy, Ruth and Tommy portrayed by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield respectively, who become entangled in a love triangle. Principal photography began in April 2009 and lasted several weeks. The movie was filmed at various locations, including Andrew Melville Hall. Never Let Me Go was produced by DNA Films and Film4 on a $15 million budget.
On-screen captions explain that a medical breakthrough in 1952 has permitted the human lifespan to be extended beyond 100 years. This cuts to a young man (Andrew Garfield) lying on an operating table and smiling at a woman observing from the other side of the glass window. The woman is 28-year-old Kathy H (Carey Mulligan), the narrator. She reminisces about her childhood at a boarding school called Hailsham, as well as her adult life after leaving the school. The first act of the film depicts the young Kathy (Izzy Meikle-Small), along with her friends Tommy (Charlie Rowe) and Ruth (Ella Purnell), spending their childhood at Hailsham in 1978.
The school is strange; students are encouraged to create artwork instead of learning science and mathematics normal for school children. Their best work gets into “The Gallery” run by a mysterious woman known as Madame Marie-Claude (Nathalie Richard). One day, a new teacher, Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins) quietly informs the students of their nature; they exist only as organ donors for transplants and will die – or, rather, “complete” – in their early adulthood. She is shortly afterward sacked by the headmistress (Charlotte Rampling) for telling this to the students. As time passes, Kathy and Tommy develop feelings for one another, but Tommy falls into a relationship with Ruth.
In the second act of the film, the three friends are rehoused in cottages on a farm in 1985. They are permitted to leave the grounds on day trips, but are still resigned to their eventual fate. At the farm, they meet former pupils of other schools. Two of these students see a woman in a nearby town whom they believe to be a “possible” for Ruth – the person she was cloned from. Ruth is ecstatic at the prospect, but when she, Kathy, Tommy, and the other students travel to the coast to re-examine the woman, it turns out there is very little resemblance. Ruth, bitter and disillusioned, rages that all donors are “modelled on trash”, meaning that they are cloned from the people lowest in society, such as prostitutes and criminals.
From the others, Kathy and her friends hear rumours of the possibility of “deferral” – a temporary reprieve from organ donation for donors who are in love and can somehow prove it. Tommy becomes convinced that the Gallery at Hailsham was intended to look into their souls and that artwork sent to the Gallery will be able to verify true love. The relationship between Tommy and Ruth becomes sexual, putting a strain on Kathy’s friendships with the two. Kathy, feeling the need to distance herself, leaves the cottages to become a “carer” – a clone who is given a temporary reprieve from donation to do the job of supporting and comforting donors. Tommy and Ruth break up shortly before Kathy leaves.
In the third and final act of the film, in 1994, Kathy is working as a carer and has not seen Ruth or Tommy since the cottages. While working as a carer, Kathy happens to meet Ruth again, who is frail after two donations. They find Tommy, who is also weakened, and the three of them drive to the sea at Ruth’s request. There, Ruth asks for their forgiveness for keeping them apart.
She admits she has always known that Kathy and Tommy were meant to be together; Ruth was with Tommy because she was jealous of his closeness to Kathy and afraid to be “left alone”. She claims she has found a means to put things right: she has found Madame’s address and believes it is she who gives out the deferrals to couples in love. Though reluctant at first, Kathy eventually agrees to give it a try. Shortly afterward, Ruth dies on the operating table during her third donation.
Never Let Me Go (2010)
Directed by: Mark Romanek
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Hannah Sharp, Oliver Parsons, Christina Carrafiell, Damien Thomas, Nathalie Richard
Screenplay by: Alex Garland
Production Design by: Mark Digby
Cinematography by: Adam Kimmel
Film Editing by: Barney Pilling
Costume Design by: Rachael Fleming, Steven Noble
Set Decoration by: Michelle Day
Art Direction by: David Bryan, Paul Cripps, Denis Schnegg
Music by: Rachel Portman
MPAA Rating: R for some sexuality and nudity.
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: September 15, 2010
