Never Let Me Go. Not as emotionally gripping as the title would have you believe.

Ah, Never Let Me Go, you odd duck of a film. You masquerade as a wistful pastoral piece with sci-fi trappings, begging for philosophical debate. It's rather unfortunate that your science-fiction trappings are what truly hamper you, considering there seems to be a decent movie at the core of it.

Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, NLMG presupposes that in the 50's, medical technology has an important breakthrough which allows for people to live longer and healthier lives. This breakthrough (SPOILER WARNING: Since I can't really talk about this sodding movie without discussing this bit, not that the movie keeps it secret really.) is that human cloning is perfected, and thus clones are created with the sole purpose of harvesting their organs at a later date for transplanting into less-healthy less-cloney people. For reasons that are beyond me, and seem utterly sadistic, these clones are raised as normal human beings, albeit, monitored by whatever sinister government agencies condoned their creation, until the day comes for them to have their insides cut out.
The film follows the friendship of three such clones and traces their lives from childhood to their final days. Their struggles, their discovery of romance etc,etc.

                          Our 3 heroes, watching paint dry (Presumably).

Now, what truly anchors Never Let Me Go is the performances of the three leads. They aren't the only good performances in the film, but from them you get a true sense of character. They feel like genuine people and despite the somewhat ridiculous gimmick the plot carries like a monkey on its back(More on that later), they really give the film something of an emotional veracity. Carey Mulligan in particular is standout as our viewpoint character, Kathy, with a rather subdued performance. The weariness apparent on her face is simply striking, as though she is utterly resigned to her fate from the start. Knightley and Garfield give it their all as well, leading to some really strong scenes.
It also helps that the cinematography is absolutely fucking gorgeous. Some of the shots look like paintings. Despite my finding this movie mediocre overall, if I had some of these shots laminated in poster form, I'd gladly hang them up in my living room. If only to produce feelings of melancholia and nostalgia in friends who came to visit me. (They would be doing a far better job than the movie did, I'll tell ya that).

                                      And now they're watching the ocean....
   
Unfortunately, as I mentioned prior, this movie is severely hampered by one thing in particular. That science-fiction concept that's the heavy focus of the plot? Well, I just can't believe it. Within the realm of the film, it feels utterly unreal, as though another film was being screened at the same time and somehow bled into NLMG.
Somewhat like the "Dream Infiltration" in Inception, the science bits of NLMG are really simply there to allow the writer to tell a certain kind of story. Unlike Inception, the world of NLMG simply doesn't lend itself to the very concept it's built around. Watching it, I couldn't believe that this had actually happened, not even the none-clone characters in the film could believe it. And the fact that they would raise these clones as human beings? Well, obviously medical technology jumping leaps and bounds has transmogrified mankind into a race of bloody sadists! Or so the film would have us believe. This coupled with jargon related to the concept (You don't die if you're a donor, you "Complete") further estranged me from actually caring for the characters on some level. While the performances do keep it from sinking into utter torpor, it still leaves you feeling somewhat removed.
And then there's the film score. I haven't heard a film-score that so desperately wanted you to feel in unison with it in ages. It's like the film refuses to allow your own interpretation of any of the scenes, holding up cue-cards that say "Cry now" or "You should feel really REALLY thankful you aren't going to die before you're middle-aged".
In effect, what could have been a rather compelling coming of age tale ends up a rather awkward pseudo-scifi. Like "These are the Damned" meets "Remains of the Day". It can't seem to decide what it wants to be, and ends up feeling contrived and somewhat tedious to go through.

What this gimmicky bit of the plot was meant to achieve, I'm uncertain. To illustrate the ephemeral yet valuable nature of life? To hyper-compress the lives of three individuals, showing them go through the spring, autumn and winter of their lives while still being teens? It almost doesn't matter by the end, since if you've stayed till the tend, I'm sure it's because you're emotionally involved with the characters rather than actually interested in where the plot is going. Just note the "Meh" taste in your mouth when you're done watching.

3/5

Maybe I just think more highly of our species. More than Mr. Ishiguro obviously does, or did when writing this. However, one should note that I've yet to read the novel.