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Never Let Me Go (2010)

Director: Mark Romanek

Time Out rating

Average user rating

41 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

You wouldn’t know it from the poster campaign. You couldn’t guess it from the cast list. Even watching the film, the horrible reality is only gradually revealed. And yet it’s true: ‘Never Let Me Go’ is… a sci-fi movie.

If ever proof were needed that cultural snobbery is alive and well, it’s right here. ‘Never Let Me Go’ is a film so ashamed of its own genre trappings that it goes to extreme and illogical lengths to pretend they don’t exist. Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield play Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, pupils at a strange English boarding school who slowly learn that they’re being bred for a grim purpose – and one we can’t fully reveal without a spoiler…

You’ve seen this movie before, back in 2005, the same year Kazuo Ishiguro published his novel. Then it was called ‘The Island’ and masked its numerous scripting deficiencies with a series of noisy, action-packed escape scenes. No such luck here: Ishiguro’s central point about human acquiescence to the inevitability of death is powerful on the page, but on screen it’s flat and frustrating. Alex Garland’s screenplays (‘28 Days Later’, ‘Sunshine’) often feel like they were written in the same time it takes to watch the film, and this is no exception, glossing over key emotional currents like the central love triangle and draining any sense of tension from the material.

Mark Romanek’s direction is icy and uninvolved, but there are some lovely visual flourishes, and his work with the actors is solid: while Knightley flounders, Mulligan and Garfield provide the film’s few effectively intimate moments as a star-crossed victims doomed to die. The result is pretty, empty, and immediately forgettable.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2112: 10 - 16 February, 2011

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User reviews of this film

Ardjuna said...

Posted on May 25 2012 23:47 A thoroughly moving and thought-provoking piece, sublimely acted and beautifully shot, the two-star rating of this reviewer is at best unjustified. Of course film reviews will be subjective to some extent, but it is difficult to understand how anyone with any emotional intelligence could remain so unaffected by NLMG.

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Tash said...

Posted on Oct 13 2011 11:30 This movie was disappointing. Perhaps I could have appreciated if I hadn't read the book first, but I couldn't stand the changes that were made in the adaptation. They seemed pointless and changed the relationships between the characters. There was a lack of insight into the characters thoughts and far too much of the plot was removed or altered. Having said that, Carey Mulligan did a great job as Kathy. I just wish that Kazuo Ishiguro's text had come through, instead of a typical tear-jerking movie.

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Maddy said...

Posted on Sep 02 2011 21:31 I loved the book and somehow the film was even more moving. I haven't cried at a film for a long time but this one made me want to howl along with one of the central characters. For me, the serious question it asks is what we will allow to go on in our society's as long as we can hide from the unpleasant darkside of things that bring us benefits.

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Mark said...

Posted on Jul 30 2011 11:25 Give me strength, where does T.O get its reviewers? I guess Tom Huddleston would probably complain about a lack of decent guitar solos in a Mahler symphony... oops no I'm being a cultural snob, apart from the fact it doesn't really work... Take time Mr H, and let the structure and emotions of this moving and thoughtful adaptation percolate through to whatever sensibilities are buried beneath the surface of your prejudicial mindset. Perhaps then you will understand the difference between NLMG and "The Island" and get how Ishiguro's message relates to the world we live in today without having to relegate a movie to its genre and then judge whether it has enough action to qualify as "good sci-fi".

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Olivia said...

Posted on Jul 04 2011 12:12 I agree with this short review, although it doesn't quite convey how awful this film is. While the acting and cinematography are for the most part decent, the premise and narrative thrust of the film are so hackneyed, vacuous and just plain stupid to merit anyone's attention. The characters, who seem to represent a strange analogue of the human being without any of this creature's most vital characteristics, are not developed in any significant way, and the viewer does not get much involved in their fates. It's a great shame that a film that could have explored mortality, love, freedom, and the future of health in an engaging and intelligent way had to line it all with sentimentality and cliche, all under the benevolent gaze of the British rural aesthetic.

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Richard Carter said...

Posted on Jun 01 2011 13:51 Well, you can certainly rely on Time Out's film reviews. Go to a load of pretentious, incompetently filmed BS like Heartbeats and Time Out gives it four stars. But go to a finely-made, moving and sensitive film examining a fundamental subject like life and death, in this case Never Let Me Go, and what does Time Out produce? A classic whine and a ludicrous comparison with The Island. I went to see NLMG knowing nothing at all about it beforehand (for all I knew it could have been the latest Jennifer Aniston crapfest), and was deeply impressed by a serious view of the issues here (don't want to give too much away with spoilers, even at this late stage).
But I suppose there's one good thing about this review: you can, as ever, rely on a Time Out review, in that if TO says it's good, it'll be shite, and if TO says it's bad, it may well be as good as this film is.

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Lilli said...

Posted on Apr 30 2011 04:06 Guy who wrote this surely did sleep when they was trying to teach him in school - anything.. and surely did skip a lot in life when is not able to recognize to true, clean and feeling bigger than ourselves.
Thumbs up for this great movie.

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ed said...

Posted on Apr 20 2011 16:21 forgot my stars...
I'd be interested to see deleted scenes or an extended cut...films feels like it got hacked, to keep a very trim running time.

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Bubbles said...

Posted on Apr 14 2011 12:55 Happy, happy, clappy, trappy??? Is the fact that this movie is unhappy that irks some people? Positive thinking half-full brigade. Please, just grow up. Night follows day, light is lighter against darkness, the truth is out there. Face it. Then your happiness will seem more real. To everyone. This is an astounding film. Who cares that it's Sci-Fi set in an English past?

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AndrewC said...

Posted on Mar 24 2011 21:37 No CGI, no car chases, no 3D, no explosions whatsoever. If you want action-packed escape sequences or even happy endings, see another film.

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Jessica Langlois said...

Posted on Mar 17 2011 17:23 "...Ishiguro’s central point about human acquiescence to the inevitability of death is powerful on the page..." -- this concept intrigued me most in the film; am now eager to read the novel!
Also, could this film be meant as an allegory for the way we presently treat captive, sentient creatures?
http://www.asupposedlyfunthing.com/post/3899181089/the-question-of-the-soul

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Adrian said...

Posted on Mar 12 2011 05:06 Beautiful, poignant, universally human film.
The review is unfortunate, infantile and bordering the ridiculous.

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Liv said...

Posted on Feb 25 2011 18:26 I find it curious that Tom Huddleston is accusing this film of cultural snobbery when he is the one who finds sci-fi a 'horrible reality'. It concerns me that a supposedly good film critic is so limited by his own perceptions of what 'genre' ought to be- heaven forbid someone might do something different. It is also a little embarassing that he can not imagine a sci-fi film without shiny surfaces and blinking lights... Never mind Tom, the next Star Trek film will be out soon- perhaps you'll find that easier to deal with.

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Chio Chuca said...

Posted on Feb 23 2011 19:52 The acting is fantastic, the objects and scenery somehow calm you down a bit against the frustration you feel for the passiveness of the characters towards their destiny. But my body grew up in the sunshine and my soul is tropical, I can see how the constant grey clouds over this beautiful island have made unhappiness so acceptable to its inhabitants, and therefore I can understand those who liked the film, but I cannot join them because as I said...my soul is tropical!

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Paul Murphy said...

Posted on Feb 22 2011 13:15 This is an unjustifiably mean review. I found Never Let Me Go a very powerful film for a number of reasons. The frequent lack of rebellion was a chilling consequence of the near-universal acceptance of inhumanity - as if the Nazis had won in Britain (and perhaps commenting on Brits' frequent phlegmatic acceptance). A very thoughtful adaptation of the excellent book. The 'privileged' world of Hailsham turns the romance of Harry Potter on its head (and perhaps Ishiguro is commenting on Oxbridge as an isstitution too). All actors, including Keira Knightley, portray their characters in their situation really well. A contender for film of the year - rush to see this film.

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