Never Let Me Go (2010) [DVD]

It's often very difficult to separate a book and the inevitable screen adaptation. I'm always uncertain if it's a good or bad thing to have read the book before seeing the film, or if they should be taken into account as two completely separate entities. With Never Let Me Go the film is strong enough and the performances sure enough for it to stand alone.

Based on the book of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro (I've copied and pasted his name to make sure I spell it correctly) it follows three characters through the process of growing up, falling in love, and then going through the tough ordeal of being used as organ donors. It's a rather Sci-Fi concept, set in a very English environment, with stunning landscapes of a country boarding school, Norfolk cottages and gorgeous countryside.

Kathy, Tommy and Ruth all grow up together in a facility that care for "clones" that will be, in later life, used for their vital organs for everyday people. They are kept away from the outside world, are not taught any life skills, and just encouraged to keep fit and healthy and enjoy the wonders of art and poetry. It is these three characters that we follow throughout the film, finding out their expectations, emotions and eventually the questions they ask themselves about what their life boils down to.

The three central actors, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Kiera Knightley are on great form, and their ever complicated love triangle draws you in to this wonderfully crafted drama. It doesn't shout, it doesn't insult anyones intelligence and it enthrals the audience in the journey of these strange but wonderful characters, in this strange and wonderful life they have been given.

Wonderful story, beautifully shot and terrifically acted. A film that will make you think about missed opportunities, the fragility of life and the chances that we have to make it what we want.

Never Let Me Go is a movie based on a novel by one of my favourite authors, Kazuo Ishiguro.

The plot focuses on three characters: Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, who become entangled in a love triangle. It has the usual themes of love, jealousy and betrayal, but what is different about this particular story is that the central characters are "clones" which have been created and raised solely to provide donor organs to transplants. The film chronicles phases in the lives of the main characters.

I must challenge some of the points made in other reviews. Firstly, this is not a science fiction movie. Indeed, the director, Mark Romanek, said that he did not make Never Let Me Go a science fiction film; instead he was doing a love story with fictional science context mixed into the story. He goes on to describe it as a "love story where the science fiction is this subtle patina on the story."

Secondly, some reviewers question why the central characters - the "donors" - passively accept their fate and not rebel and run away. Romanek explains that this is not the story the author wanted to write. The story is essentially about behaviour and acceptance and examples given are where people stay in marriages that are abusive or unhappy or people stay in jobs that they don't find fulfilling. Another example is how people who have terminal illnesses don't suddenly go on a world cruise or bungee jump off a bridge, they usually stay in their routines. Arguably the fundamental reason may be because Mr Ishiguro was born in Japan and in Japanese culture it's considered heroic to perform one's service to the greater good of society.

Finally some reviewers appear to be disappointed because there is no action. This is a movie based on a Kazuo Ishiguro novel. Those familiar with this wonderful author's work will know that he doesn't write action-packed novels. His stories are clevery crafted, gentle tales where the truth of the matter is made clear only gradually, via a veiled but suggestive language. His earlier works, The Remains of the Day and A Pale View of the Hills, are perfect examples of this.

Turning to the movie itself, for me it worked at every level. The performances are outstanding and the director skilfully adheres to the restrained tone of the book avoiding anything that could be considered over-dramatic. The film engages you from the first frame and by the end you know you've seen something special. It's a moving, powerful tale that will stay with you long after you have finished the movie. I must also praise the music score by Rachel Portman which perfectly complements the film. Never Let Me Go is a haunting, beautiful film that has entered my list of top ten movies of all time.

Something is wrong in the world of Never Let Me Go. Exactly what that thing is, and how it affects the three friends at the centre of the story, is unspooled with exquisite understatement - rivetingly controlled, and devastatingly sad.

Kathy, Tommy and Ruth (played by Mulligan, Garfield and Knightley respectively, with some excellent child actors filling the roles in the earlier parts of the story) are students at Hailsham boarding school. Although the film is set in the late '70s, the children live a strangely anachronistic life: dressed in old handknits, playing with shabby toys, watching black-and-white musicals for a treat, they seem to exist in a post-war bubble. And, more peculiar still, they have no parents.

An opening caption informs us that a medical breakthrough in 1952 extended the human lifespan to over 100, but what that has to do with Hailsham is only implied at the start. All the same, these mysterious children are quite ordinary. They have friendships and secrets, they suffer from teasing (poor Tommy most of all) and they fall in love - Kathy with Tommy, before Ruth imposes herself to form a quietly agonising triangle. After school, they move on to a fragile version of adult life together, the immediate heartache of their relationships colliding with the ever-more-imminent, unspeakably terrible fate to which they've been born.

None of this would be so affecting if it wasn't done subtly, and the film benefits from three outstanding performances. Knightley makes the potentially unsympathetic Ruth into an object of compassion; Garfield's Tommy is anguished but never overwrought; and as Kathy, Mulligan is the most important part of the film, conveying a tragic blend of desperation and resignation through not much more than the gentle collapse of the sides of her mouth.

Adapted from a novel by a Japanese-born author and directed by an American, Never Let Me Go is extraordinarily English. Partly that's in the combination of mid-20th century ephemera and bleak seaside settings, but it's also down to the genre - a blend of sci-fi set-up (that critical medical advancement) and achingly human drama. This is a story of loss that grips you tightly (and tearfully) from beginning to end.