Never Let Me Go

 My heart is so sad.

I did not know what to expect. I hadn't heard much about it apart from very mixed reviews. I knew it was about a group of three people who had been raised together in a school for children, that there was some unrequited love and that it had a "sci-fi" or futuristic element to it. I did not expect it to be heart wrenchingly sad.

I'm not going to say much about the storyline, because i dont want to spoil it, but the opening half hour is quite slow and jolted, based in their childhood. It is beautifully shot, and the child actors have a presence on screen that i strong and nice to see. However, it is when we get to the adult lives of the characters that this film really starts to take off. Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley are all brilliant, showing such emotioanl depth that i literally wanted to cry for them.

I expected this film to be similar to Atonement, in the respects that it's extremely beautiful to look at, it has Keira Knightley in it (actually acting well), and it's the sort of film that a lot of people don't appreciate. This is all true, but nobody can criticise the tremendous amount of acting and emotionality of the film, it is, simply beautiful.

Some people won't like it. It isn't uplifting. It paints a world that is awful, a world thats not worth thinking about. But maybe it is worth thinking about, maybe the author who wrote the book is trying to say something. If nothing else, enjoy the beautiful scenery, the sometimes harrowing emotionality, and the utterly beautiful acting by three very talented brits.

4/5