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Saturday 12 February 2011

Never Let Me Go


Director: Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo)
Starring: Carey Mulligan (An Education), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Keira Knightley (You all know)

I've been waiting for this film to arrive in UK cinemas for almost a year, so there was no question we would see it on the day it came out. I'm not yet sure it lived up to expectations.

It was certainly a profound and unsettlingly beautiful piece of work, and was startlingly close to the original story of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel (which, incidentally, is one of my favourites and the reason I wanted to see it so desperately). It was nice to see Carey Mulligan taking centre stage over Knightley, who although good did rather well as a (slightly) less important character- such a well known, pouty face would have taken a lot away from the film. Nice, too, to see such good child actors, who for once I felt no animosity towards, and as well as being convincing also resembled their adult 'selves' uncannily.

One thing I would not be easily persuaded to do to myself is to see the film again, however well made it may have been. It was simply too sad, more so, I think, than the novel, and more than any film I have seen: the quiet sorrow that runs through from start to finish (I think more so if you have read the book and know what is coming) made it somewhat less than enjoyable despite it's masterly camera-work and impeccable detail.

But I'm a pathetic girl and was in a less than gleeful mood before I went into the cinema: don't let this put you off, go and see it anyway, it's definitely worth it.