This is the film that director Mark Romanek ended up making after he left his “Wolfman” project over budgetary concerns, and boy, this is a great film. The film is a light science fiction drama which begins in 1978, some 26 years after doctors discovered a way to cure the previously incurable, thus making life expectancy to be around 100 years of age. This review is going to be hard without the inclusion of spoilers, and because we as an audience are slowly given information as the characters themselves are given it, it will basically ruin the film if you are interested in watching it. Alright, from here on out, beware, I’m in spoiler territory.
The film begins at Hailsham, which is what appears to be an idyllic English boarding school for young children. Here we meet our main characters, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy. They are like normal kids at school, taking lessons, making friends, playing games, but the school has a habit of constantly letting the children know that they are special and to keep themselves healthy inside. The children also have a fear of leaving the grounds of Hailsham, due to horror stories they have been told. Every now and again, the kids get excited when a couple of men bring what looks like used or lost toys that the children can buy. Tommy, instead of buying something for himself buys Kathy a music cassette, which has the song “Never Let Me Go” on it, because he has feelings for the young girl. Kathy’s best friend Ruth notices the attraction and due to jealousy on her part ends up stealing Tommy away from her and the two end up boyfriend and girlfriend.
Soon a new teacher comes to the school and is disturbed to learn that the children are not aware of their true purpose in life. It turns out that the kids are clones, who are to be brought up like normal and especially healthy kids, so when they become of age, they can donate their healthy organs to the sick who are in desperate need of them. Their whole purpose in life is to save the lives of others, while condemning themselves to an early death.
After this revelation we jump ahead to when the children have grown up and are around the age of eighteen, preparing themselves for their first donations. The characters are now played by Keira Knightley (Ruth), Andrew Garfield (Tommy) and Carey Mulligan (Kathy). By this time, they have recently left Hailsham, and are now living together in a sort-of half-way house. Suddenly everything is new again, and they must adjust to living in the outside world, where they are introduced to a lot of new things like television. As much new stuff as there is, some things haven’t changed, as we see that Ruth and Tommy are still together, with Kathy still silently in love with Tommy also. While at the half-way house , they hear of a situation where if two clones have found true love, they could apply for a deferral . The thing is, the deferral will not save them from donating, but it would give the couple a few extra years together before their donations begin. After hearing this, Tommy finally comes clean and admits that he has been in love with Kathy this whole time. Knowing that their love is true, the new couple decide that they are going to apply for the deferral.
As far as this being a sci-fi film, you may as well forget it, because the human drama that unfolds is the core to this film (This is no “Blade Runner” folks). This is such a beautiful, quiet and layered film. Honestly, I just love this film. The emotional intensity of it, is so high, especially at the end, it is impossible not to be moved by this story. Performances throughout are amazing, but I want to make note of Sally Hawkins performance as Miss Lucy, the new teacher that ultimately explains to the children their true destinies. After her nauseatingly over-the-top performance in Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky”, I must admit that I was stunned that I was watching the same woman here. As Miss Lucy, she is so restrained and full of sadness for these kids, and it is truly a beautiful performance, and even though her role is small, it impacts you in a way that you do not forget it.
As far as the other roles go, both Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield are superb, but this is Carey Mulligan’s movie. She is simply outstanding in her role of Kathy H, and I believe her performance would be the second best female performance of 2010. There was one scene in particular where her talents just blew me away, and also destroyed me emotionally due to the power behind her work. The scene in question is when Kathy and Tommy go for a walk together and Tommy mentions that he was thinking about trying out for the deferral however he was afraid that he would be knocked back. Kathy asks “Why?” in the anticipation that he is finally going to admit his love for her, and you can see that he wants to tell her, but in the end he is too scared to and instead says “Because I never had any of my paintings go to the gallery” (this has to do with the fact, that Tommy believes that the Hailsham staff used the paintings they made as kids as in insight into their souls, which would determine whether or not they were telling the truth and the two were truly in love, thus either giving them or denying them a deferral).
Anyway, the way Carey Mulligan silently breaks down, turning away from Tommy, with a single tear falling from her eye, while quietly saying the words “Oh Tommy”, in utter disappointment, was so heartbreaking to me. Within the next second she has composed herself and the two continue their walk. It is masterful acting, and I believe that Carey Mulligan is going to become a huge star in the future. A lot of people get hung up on knowing why the kids never try to escape their fate, when the answer is obvious, it is because this is all they know. For the first eighteen years of their life while living at Hailsham, this is how they have been brought up, basically in a bubble. They do not even think to escape because all they have ever known is what they have been told at Hailsham, which is that they will donate their organs and die.
There is so much more that I want to write about this film (I could talk about this film all day), but this review is already too long, but I must make mention of the casting of the three kids. The casting of the kids was probably the best I have seen, in the way, that you could actually believe that they would grow up looking like Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan (especially this girl, she is almost the spitting image of Carey).
Anyway, Mark Romanek has created such a gorgeous film here, that I absolutely adore, and while at the time I was devastated by the news when he left “The Wolfman”, it has clearly turned out great for him, and us, the audience (Although, I still wonder what his “Wolfman” would have been like).
Ranked 8 in Top 25 of 2010
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