Reel Rewind: “Never Let Me Go”

Arriving an hour before the scheduled start for the FIND Film Series preview screening of “Never Let Me Go”, I receive one of the last Wait Passes with the director’s name of Michael Moore. Haven’t seen any of Michael’s recent documentaries – last one I saw was “Bowling For Columbine”. After getting assurance that novelist Kazuo Ishiguro was going to be at the Q & A, I went to the nearby Barnes & Noble and found the last copy of “Never Let Me Go” on the shelf. Very lucky! Browsing around in Barnes & Noble for a while, I didn’t find anything else I wanted to buy, so the Ishiguro book was the only purchase.

Returning to the Landmark Theatres, I found an empty space on a couch and began waiting for the names of directors to be called. In a departure from the last Film Independent screening I attended, the name caller wanted all the people with director names at the end of the list to go into the Wine Bar to wait there to be called. Of course Michael Moore’s name turned out to be the last one (have to come earlier to get a Wait Pass that’s higher up on the list). Even though the theater for the screening was next to the bar, I don’t know why people had to squeeze themselves into that space to wait. Rather ridiculous.

Because my director’s name was the last one called, I was not able to sit where I usually do, but ended up in the first row – which requires a strong and flexible neck and with leg room being the only physical advantage to sitting in that row. There was the usual introduction of the film and request to silence all electronic devices. The setting of “Never Let Me Go” is England and the story of the three main characters – Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth – covers the years from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. We first meet the trio around age twelve at their boarding school, Hailsham. At first it seems that they and the other children are living a typical boarding school life, but soon things don’t seem right. Why have the children been psychologically conditioned to fear the world outside the grounds of the school – making the retrieval of a ball that went over a low fence impossible to do and requiring them to role-play being customers in a tea shop instead of actually going to one? Why are the only toys the children have broken, old ones that they “purchase” with tokens they have acquired? And why are they equipped with some sort of electronic bracelet that they scan regularly at their dormitory?

The realization becomes clear that this is an alternate reality in which the children are to serve a purpose when they are adults that is beyond their control. At twelve they are not to know that purpose – a teacher is removed for telling them they have no choices in life. While they are still at school, the relations between the friends changes when Tommy and Ruth begin a romantic connection; thus leaving Kathy looking in from the outside on a relationship that should have been hers. Boarding school life ends at age eighteen and by that time they know that they are part of the National Donor Programme, i.e. they are the donors. And they are clones - clones who don’t know their “originals” and whose knowledge of the outside world is limited. Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth are sent to live on a farm in a transition period before they begin donating. With no hope that Tommy and Ruth will breakup, Kathy becomes a “Carer” which allows her to focus attention on others and delays her entry into active donorship.

When the friends are reunited years later, Kathy is still a Carer and Tommy and Ruth are active donors. Finally, Kathy and Tommy begin to enjoy their long overdue love and seek a deferral from donating. Though rumors about deferrals circulated through the donor community for years, they were just false hope – there were never any deferrals. Kathy and Tommy just have the time until Tommy’s next donation. With Tommy and Ruth having completed their donations, Kathy’s tenure as a Carer ends and her own donations will begin. Essentially, “Never Let Me Go”, is the story of a “family” in circumstances that I hope will never happen. Although the focus of “Never Let Me Go” stresses the love and friendship aspect of the film, I’m concerned with the underlying text of the cloning of humans whose sole purpose is to provide organic material as needed by, one assumes, the non-cloned humans. Is this a version of humanity’s future that will come to pass or will this be taken as a warning to avoid this genetic path? Despite today’s general restrictions on the type of human cloning presented in the film, I have no doubt that it will happen and we need to begin now to determine how clones will be integrated into human life. They are us.

During the Q & A (which included Mark Romanek, Alex Garland, Kazuo Ishiguro, Allon Reich, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield), various aspects of bringing “Never Let Me Go” to the screen were discussed from the perspectives of the director (in terms of casting and directing) and the producer, along with the screenwriter’s interpretation of the novelist’s work, and of course, how the filming process was for Andrew and Carey. Oh, and there was one other advantage to sitting in the first row - catching Kazuo Ishiguro right after the Q & A and having him sign my newly purchased copy of “Never Let Me Go”. He hadn’t seen the movie tie-in edition until signing it and Mark Romanek also took a look at the book. While they and the rest of the film team were going off to another Q & A session, I, my singular self, was heading into the night and home.


Film Facts: Director/Producer: Mark Romanek, Writer/Producer: Alex Garland, Novelist: Kazuo Ishiguro, Cinematographer: Adam Kimmel, Editor: Barney Pilling, Musician: Rachel Portman, Producers: Richard Hewitt, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich, Tessa Ross, Production Companies: DNA Films, Film4

Film Type: Drama, Thriller, Cast: Carey Mulligan (Kathy), Andrew Garfield (Tommy), Keira Knightley (Ruth), Izzy Meikle-Small (Young Kathy), Charlie Rowe (Young Tommy), Ella Purnell (Young Ruth), Charlotte Rampling (Miss Emily), Sally Hawkins (Miss Lucy), Kate Bowes Renna (Miss Geraldine), Hannah Sharp (Amanda), Oliver Parsons (Arthur), Luke Bryant (David), Fidelis Morgan (Matron), Damien Thomas (Doctor), Nathalie Richard (Madame), Length: 103’, Language: English, Countries: United Kingdom, United States, Year: 2010
Film Trailer
United States release date Wednesday 15 September 2010


Images:
Left: Carey Mulligan as Kathy, Keira Knightley as Ruth, and Andrew Garfield as Tommy from the website filmindependent.org
Center: Graphic interpretation of “Never Let Me Go” created by Adrean Darce Brent
Right: “Never Let Me Go” poster from the website filmtotaal.nl