‘Never Let Me Go’
Director: Mark Romanek
Stars: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield
Rating: R Grade: 3 out of 5
It’s great to say goodbye to summer blockbuster season, especially if that means we can welcome fewer “star-studded” casts slinging the cinema equivalent of mystery meat into theaters. But, as is true for almost every “serious” release that’s slated to come out this September, (“The Town,” most prominently), watching the trailer will ruin it all. Resist the temptation – or else there’s really nothing the films can offer that two minutes of spoilers didn’t already tell you.
This is heartbreakingly true for the film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Never Let Me Go.” While beautifully shot and acted, the tale that follows the lives of three life-long friends in an English boarding school is completely devoid of suspense, given that advertisements of the film give away the most pivotal moments in the film. Not all of us read the book already, okay? That’s why movies exist.
It’s already widely known that the children are clones, with their lives’ purpose being to donate their organs. But it’s an intriguing concept, even if at times it plays out like a Nicholas Sparks novel. And the romantic complications between the three, their ideas about what life is meant to be, and the meditation on what makes us human are subtle enough to raise the bar of this film to surefire Oscar bait.
It’s good to have the prime rib back.
