This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I had no expectations to this film, I just read the introduction to what the plot of the film was and then I pressed play. After twenty minutes the film finally reveals what the plot is about, so anyone who have not read the cliffnotes will have no idea what it is about. I'm gonna sum up this movie in a short dialog. "Do you want to die?" - No. "Too bad, because eventually we will kill you." - Please don't kill me. "What are you going to do about it?" - I'm gonna go sit down in that corner over there and start crying. I'm not joking, this is seriously the plot of the movie. It is boring, it won't make you think about the theme after you've watched it and you won't feel anything for any of the characters in this movie.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's the saddest music in the world. By itself, Judy Bridgewater's "Never Let Me Go" is just another torch song of no particular distinction, it's what Kathy H. brings to the canned performance; her naivety as a listener which makes the ordinary ballad so heartbreaking, when she misinterprets "baby", the singer's plea to a careless lover, as a petition to a baby, in the literal sense, that he/she "never let [her] go". While the cassette tape plays in the empty dorm room, Kathy H. slow-dances with a pillow, the baby she'll never conceive, in her arms, with Madame watching from outside the doorway, a little bleary-eyed, flummoxed by the young girl's humanity. In an instant, she knows the "gallery" is just window-dressing. These children do indeed have souls. This scene, more than any from the Kazuo Ishiguro novel, demonstrates the profundity of inhumaneness at work here, made all the more strange by the genteel setting of the Hailsham school, whose guardians, despite their advocacy against treating these children inhumanely, still believe that the final solution is a necessary evil. These unseen forces count on the guardians to poison their minds with propaganda about the world outside Hailsham, and the world inside their bodies.This ignorance; this resignation, that these children have been instilled with all their lives, since birth, made them feeble, made them strange. The pantomime Ishiguro describes in his Man Booker Prize-short-listed book, an imitation of motherhood which Kathy H. performs in a context so grossly misapprehended because of her own circumscribed purview, is a grotesquerie that makes the girl too vulnerable, too much like a freak. With the same stiff upper lip he applied to his third novel "The Remains of the Day", the pre-eminent writer of contemporary British fiction has no reservations about putting Kathy H., Tommy D. and Ruth in tragi-comic situations that serve them up for ridicule. Too bad the film version of "Never Let Me Go" chose to iron out the flaws which made the students less bland. They're maladjusted, but the film wants to ensure that audiences like them. In the book, Kathy H. had lots of sex with strangers, Tommy D. didn't seem nearly as thoughtful like how Andrew Garfield plays him, and Ruth was a whole lot more machiavellian at Hailsham, and especially at the Cottages. But most egregious of all, what "Never Let Me Go" loses in the translation from novel to film, is the original meaning of the Judy Bridgewater song, since the filmmaker changes Ishiguro's lyrics by replacing "baby" with "darling", a term of endearment that Kathy H. associates with Tommy D.. The dystopian film loses its key estranging moment in order to make the girl more relatable to the moviegoer, who can better identify with a girl in the throes of puppy love. Kathy H. has a better grip on her feelings in the movie than the book, an effect, however, that makes her indistinguishable from any other boarding school girl with growing pains. Instead of Madame, it's Ruth who's the quiescent observer, and like her best friend, she too seems overtly sophisticated and worldly, not at all how Ishiguro envisioned them, his "poor creatures", as Madame later describes them, but in the film, the jealous girl understands Kathy H.'s designs on Tommy D., understands the gist of the song, which gives her the impetus to steal the boy's heart. "Never Let Me Go" is too conventional for its own good. The love story plays too prominent a role in the narrative, at the expense of the dislocative atmosphere which drives the book, but disappointingly, not the adaptation, whose revamped character seem to understand the difference between love and sex, tears and come, in spite of their limited experiences. As adults, when Kathy H., Tommy D., and Ruth begin to fulfill their destinies as "carers"(Kathy H.) and "donors"(Ruth and Tommy), "Never Let Me Go" pays the price of loving its characters too much. The filmmaker wants the trio to be savvy about love, but naive about dying, but they seem too smart, so when the former Hailsham students don't seem fully cognizant to the fact that "completion" and death are a matter of semantics with little or no differentiation, it rings false. They should escape, but "Never Let Me Go" avoids that banality, so prevalent in the third act of so many genre films, especially science fiction, because Hailsham turned them into good little soldiers who wouldn't desert their mission and escape the fate which awaits them. In one scene, acting on a tip about a boat, Kathy H. drives Tommy D. and Ruth to the coastline, but the boat is purely for sightseeing. Marooned on the sand, nobody seems terribly disappointed that the boat isn't on the water. If it was, would they have the survival instinct to sail away? After Ruth dies, clearing the way for Kathy and Tommy to get their "deferral", why don't they just get in the car and take off?… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Saw this at TIFF I don't think have ever been so bored watching a movie in my life. There was no one or nothing to route for. They just sat around and waited to die. At least In the movie The Island, when they discovered what they were in for they fought to stay alive. These people sat around a whined about how unfair it was. I wanted to scream "THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!" But that something never came. I don't respect people who don't at least try to change their circumstances. Awful story, Normal I cry like a baby at these movies and I didn't shed a single tear because I didn't Feel anything for any of them.… Expand

As I was watching this movie, I keep thinking about The Island, a movie with a similar scientific premise, but handled in a much more interesting way. Yes, that was a sci-fi action flick, and this is a pure drama, but it seems like almost TOO much of the detail was left out of this movie. And it maintained a slow emotional burn throughout. Almost a bit boring. Doesn't have the emotional wallop like I thought it would have. I was disappointed that Sally Hawkins had such little (though impactful) screen time.… Expand

First, I must explain that I read the book prior to seeing the movie. I thought it was well acted and caught the mood and tone of the book precisely. Also, it was cast well and I felt Andrew Garfield's performance as Tommy was fabulous. The reason for a bit lower score is due to (2) reasons: changes in significant events in the book -- don't worry, I won't tell. And, the oversimplification of the dialogue and lack of nuances that are in the book. I realize in order to adapt any book to a movie, much must be cut. But a couple of significant things could have been included and not added too much to the running time. Regardless, I think it's a compelling movie that will leave you with questions for days. And, I recommend you read the book first.… Expand

I'm overwhelmed. After a summer of crude, overly-budgeted nonsense, the last three weeks have found me in the theater watching films that were thoughtful, mature, and perhaps most resonantly, emotionally razing. It's exciting to arrive at this time of year as the mood starts to shift along with the caliber, but it's also important to be prepared for it, and I can't say that I have been. I've gone head first into these films with little more than excitement to safeguard me. Today, this trilogy of despair came to its logical conclusion with the lovingly crafted and deeply heartbreaking Never Let Me Go. The film is based on Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel of the same name, and follows Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley), three individuals cloned for the purposes of organ donation. As they brave their short lives in lamentable innocence, they must too deal with the complexities of a love triangle and the absence of so many things the rest of us take for granted. There is no real emphasis on becoming an adult, because it's simply not something these donors will have to worry about. Their lives have been planned to the last detail by people they will never meet. The story comes in three phases: youth at the Hailsham House boarding school, post-adolescence, and adulthood, which for our characters means the beginning of donations and moving toward "completion," this world's harmonious euphemism for death. While the first phase of the film feels a little numb, this is due more to the hesitant performances of Director Mark Romanek's child actors than anything else. Generally the story rides a line of exposition and elision, handling both fairly well. There's a whole lot of story happening in the world at large, and conveying bits and pieces of it without too glaringly divulging everything is a feat Romanek mostly accomplishes. It's once the film arrives at its second phase and into the hands of its wholly capable adult performers that we see its real strength. This young trio is strong, and Mulligan and Garfield together are phenomenal. To appreciate what they're doing, it's important to appreciate the complexity of these characters. In a way, these three (and the many others stricken with the plight) are entirely unrelatable. It's not just their inevitable demise and the special circumstances, but the characters utter lack of control and general resignation. While the rest of us would go kicking and screaming through this scenario, these three were born and bred to be forgiving victims. That's not to say they don't have moments of self pity, but these moments are so sparse and so quiet, you occasionally forget the horror of the truth. Kathy in particular has relinquished so entirely her anger, her frustration, her sense of the pure wrongness of this situation, she is somehow simultaneously immensely sad and magnificently strong. Garfield's Tommy though is the truly pitiable character. His innocence is pure and while it lends itself to the notion of Tommy's simplicity, his utter lack of offensiveness in any way makes him perhaps one of the most sympathetic and saddest characters you'll ever witness. Further, the love these three have for each other, though occasionally romantic, is more often simply the kindred love of a family. The kind of undiluted love a person will never be rid of. As much as death is the most universal conceit known to humanity, Never Let Me Go must be a universally affecting story. Death plays like a merciless, omnipresent villain or the deal-striking devil waiting to take his souls back. Once the film has made its grand reveal, death or "completion" become a part of everything. It all becomes a countdown and while there are no questions of "will it happen?" there is plenty of concern as to what our characters can accomplish before it does. Certainly we hope that they can love, but more than this we simply want their "completions" to feel complete. We want them, like us, to have the opportunity to not regret. Sadly, this seems altogether impossible given Kathy, Tommy and Ruth's perpetual greenness. Paradoxically, their innocence is the thing that keeps them from admitting their innocence. To explain: it's in that space just after childhood and before adulthood that we feel the most confident with our take on the world. It's a flaw and a fluke, but every fresh teenager quite simply knows what's right and what's wrong, what's true and what's false. These characters may be dressed up in naivete, but their sense of duty gives them too a false sense, an undeserved sense of life lived, when in fact they haven't really lived at all. This may just be a fact of life: we foist upon ourselves the idea of wisdom whether or not it exists so as to feel more like the adults we knew as children. With time this wisdom (hopefully) grows into itself, but sadly, maybe too sadly, the children in Never Let Me… Expand

This is a melancholy and brooding movie with very good acting. There are two stories simultaneously going on. The first has to do with the Orwellian government's purpose for the existence of the main characters. The second is about a jealous and petty girl who intentionally thwarts the development of a relationship involving her friend, only to try and make up for it later in her life. The contra-position of these two stories is very interesting. The movies Coma and The Island both dealt with the Orwellian part of this movie's story, both in a completely different (and I would say less successful) way. Those movies assumed that what was happening was so horrible that all one has to do is expose it for it to stop. This movie assumes that it is accepted by society. It ends up being a fresh and unique take on the subject. Well worth seeing and very thought provoking.… Expand

Disappointing because this could have been a really compelling movie and I loved the premise. The film on it's own has a gaping fatal flaw, a fundamental question REQUIRED for us to continue suspension of disbelief and immerse ourselves in the story. Perhaps this is why the book readers rated it higher. It's insulting to the audience not to acknowledge the elephant in the room or even attempt to address it's presence. Maddeningly stupid decision or oversight that reduces the rest of the film to fairly useless fiction.… Expand

This movie was excellent. The premise of the story intrigued me so I purchased my ticket and entered the theater with a skeptical expression. I had seen the island but I knew that this movie was approaching it from a wholly different angle, providing the aesthetic foresight accompanying the characters and their destinations. I felt immensely invested in the characters; suffice it to say Carey Mulligan's performance gripped me and elicited a strong sense of nostalgia as she progressed through the film. I seldom cry I'm movies but the story of this film, the tribulation they undergo is one that connects to the innermost rivers of emotion we experience as we face the end of something, namely life, and by the end of the film tears streamed from my eyes. The premise of the film sits on the assumption that society accepts the system presented to us in the film, and many elements of the film allow that assumption to flow quite nicely. I look forward to the novel and I encourage all to watch the movie.… Expand

i will be adding this movie to my library. it was not like all your other vampire flicks that are out their. one you can sit down and enjoy. has a good story line that can be fallowed easy so is a good movie for a crowd of adults. or just snuggled up on the couch on a snowy day.

I was mesmerized by the book. When I heard there was a film, I wondered how they would make a movie of this quite, emotionally laden, non-high speed action book. I just finished the movie and was dismayed that I bought the DVD. The film seemed like a made-for-TV video. I personally added emotion to the viewing because I had such an attachment to the book characters. Had I not had that attachment to them prior to watching the film, I would have shut it off and done the laundry or the dishes. I absolutely did not care for the movie. Having said that, I really didn't know how anyone could take all that thought and emotion from the book and translate it to a medium that calls for some action in the conflict. Great Book. Terrible Film. Keira Knightly = ick.… Expand

This movie was sooooooooo boring and dull!!! I found it very unoriginal!!! Keria Knightly is an awful actress!!! She is always doing movies she feels she'll get an Oscar nomination for!!! Any movie that stars Keria Knightly is going to be c**p that's a guarantee. I lost interest in this movie within the first 30 seconds!!!

I love rare films. This is the significance of this film, rareness. When I say this film is rare I mean that you don't see this drama in movies very often. I loved the performances of the actors and the setting. Not to forget how they turned a love triangle to a friendship to last in their memories forever.

Highly Implausible plot... I kept thinking why on earth wouldn't ALL the organ donors volunteer to be "caregivers" and why would a caregiver opt to become a donor... Acting was good, but the plot was annoying. Its hard to get involved in a film when there are such gaping holes in the logic of the narrative.

A superbly crafted and thoughtful movie. While skeptics will decry the suspension of disbelief required to accept the film's underlying premise, you will leave this movie in quiet, deep thought. My wife had read the book, for which I was grateful to obtain a few additional layers the movie omitted. The movie proposes ethical dilemmas of which stem cells are the tiny tup of the iceberg which our planet and our country will soon face. This film forces us to consider these dilemmas, although in a way in which the choices are made too obvious. As technology advances, and our choices become more complex, how will the simplistic sound bites presented by talking heads ever help us understand and choose wisely?… Expand

A friend of mine who saw this movie encountered a woman after the movie in the woman's restroom crying uncontrollably. It is a sad movie. Though the temptation is to classify this movie as science fiction, I don't think it is. It is more an allegory about live and life and death. The young folks in the movies are raised to literally give of themselves and the search for love is the center of their lives. The only thing that is certain is the inevitability of death. Death brings all the characters closer together, encourages them to love, but also separates them. Life in all is beautiful but sad. Unless we are stone cold and ungiving, we are very much like the characters in this movie.… Expand

so many questions unanswered in a script which tends to linger on details rather than the essence. But the beautiful photography and the masterful performances (especially from Mulligan) make the film worthwhile watching.

In an alternative reality taking place in the 20th century, clones of people are being raised in boarding schools for them to grow up as walking organ donors to aid mankind to lead longer lives. The film follows the short lived lives of several of them from childhood up, in the most lifeless and dragged out fashion imaginable. There isn't much of a story here, in between the excruciatingly overacted drama and ponderous thought provoking (the term is used loosely here) clichés, that is. The premise is asinine (Do they transplant brains too? Can't they just create lifeless bodies and put them in stasis until such time an organ is needed or something to that effect) and the execution vapid and nonsensical. Any interesting ground that could have been explored, was conveniently reduced to a heap of hopelessly boring platitudes about inter human connections and done to death ethics involving human cloning. It plods and then plods some more.… Expand

In 35 years this is the worst film I have ever seen. Boring Boring Boring Boring. The most exciting thing that happened was at the end of the movie watching plastic bags stuck to a fence fluttering in the wind. What a waste of 2 hours of my life. I have seen all 3 main actors in other films where they have been fantastically directed. They should all feel embarrased by this movie. I would rather watch paint dry than see this film again.… Expand

If they called this film 'Never Gonna End' it would have been much more accurate. While the premise of the film is kind of interesting in an intellectual way, the understated, sad sack performances of the three leads suck all the life out of it. They are so wrapped up in themselves it's really hard to care about any of them. Carey Mulligan is cute as a button, but by the end, even she has lost any sympathy she might have had. If you like movies about frustrated, grey English upbringings, then you will have a ball with this movie.… Expand

I suffered thru the first 20 minutes, skipped a bit forward and suffered some more. It just drags along and it must expect that its audience has an immense reserve of patience as i had to cut it short. Perhaps something happens in the movie but i would rather read the summary than having to endure such a slow death.

waoo an argument he had not seen, I liked, strong and sad movie with a heartbreaking social contrast. good interpretation, especially Carey Mulligan, I have to say I love it xDD

A simple love story. Still films like Atonement and this one bring new elements, twists and turns to the table. Making for a more enjoyable experience as we continue to think about the human condition. There is no need for a screenplay on this one, the director of this film took it page by page through the story. Refreshing and new, this film will please all fans of the award winning novel.

Mulligan’s ponderous but ultimately accepting attitude towards her fate seems like a reaction that is as extreme as Garfield’s primeval screaming. The ways in which they process the revelations throughout the film are consistently child-like although Mulligan can sometimes come across as a smug elder sibling rather than an equal to her fellow donors. In a world of boys and girls and matriarchal women she is a sexless young adult, fulfilling an uncomfortable role as protagonist and neutral observer. Perhaps it is her distant storybook voice, seemingly suited more to reading children’s literature, which provides some of the eerie edge to the film but it also detracts from some of the impact of the most important dialogue. The film’s strength is not necessarily in the ‘love triangle’ with which it is overly concerned but with the questions it raises about whether all humanity is produced for a purpose. The closing soliloquy frustrates as I suspect viewers would be more concerned with parallels between the education of beings who are thought of as soulless and their own rather than moping through two doomed relationships for most of the 100 minutes of screen-time. Worryingly the film finds a rich vein of such parallels, especially with enclosed, all-encompassing education in boarding houses. The way in which the donors are constantly puzzled by and ill-prepared for the outside world (even years after their emancipation from the walls of the institution) and remain reliant on the information provided for them from what they believe to be an omniscient source (their headteacher) is frighteningly realistic. The maintenance of this naivety in the performances of Garfield, Mulligan and Knightley is impressive with Garfield’s natural use of dialogue and inquisitive eyes cementing his growing reputation as an actor. No character seems overly concerned with whether the donation process is right or wrong and this avoidance of ethical issues in favour of more philosophical questions of purpose is a wise one. Only an early influence on the children, Miss Lucy, takes any stand against their unavoidable fate. The film’s criticism is not of the process itself but of the acceptance on the part of the rest of humanity that it has to take place. The passive and indifferent attitude which prevails amongst the main characters (which only seems out of place for Knightley’s more feral and ferocious portrayal) is exasperatingly effective.… Expand

Great movie, beautiful, of an amazing subtlety, and with two of the best actors from the new generation, Andrew Garfield and the ever-wonderful Carey Mulligan. If the outcome is hardly surprising, at least it’s entirely appropriate to the melancholy tone of the work, which also includes photography and soundtrack efficient. A sensitive movie, human, and that makes you think that deserves to be seen. It’s morbid, sad, it is “shockingâ€�. It addresses an unusual theme and the way how human beings deal with themselves and think only about their own benefit, regardless of what caused the other, which already has scheduled destination. The actors are excellent, the film as a whole is very good, despite leaving a taste of something missing there..… Expand

A near great science fiction movie with a great up and coming cast. Andrew Garfield is explosive (See the Part 1 of the Red Riding Trilogy), I'd expect him to win some serious awards in the future.

the most common criticism I see of this movie is that nobody subjected to this treatment would accept it as it is, but as a work of fiction it's trying to say something, so put that aside for a moment. but after I saw the movie it lingered in my head and I spent the rest of the night thinking of it. never let me go is about cruelty and apathy, on a macro and micro level. It's about the cruel things we do to each other, and that are imposed on us by society, and the cruelty inherent to humans. and for that to come through you have to be with these characters and feel almost like you want to turn it off, because you know what's coming. and, more profoundly, as is explicit in the movie's closing, it's about losing what makes life worth living, and feeling, all the time subjectively when faced with the inevitable peril of vanishing from consciousness, that it is somehow unfair that we have not had much more time to revel in what we have, and that it has been taken or we have lost it somehow. very good and thought provoking, but I would not suggest it if you are one of those people that can't sustain a fiction because you keep trying to superimpose the reality you're used to and because you have trouble with metaphor. you know who you are.… Expand

A nicely shot, very effective social commentary film on the human ethics. This well acted drama had an interesting plot carried out through an effective (if mediocre) screenplay.

Beautiful, fresh, good approach. I think it can't be a coincidence that good movies are mostly based on good books. I mean, the scripts have to have a good base. Gripping and wonderful.