Review of Never Let Me Go (2010) by Doctor S — 29 Jun 2012

Broken into three acts titled 'Hailsham', 'The Cottages', and 'Completion', Never Let Me Go starts very promisingly but then sadly has nothing further to say after halfway through.

Hailsham is a private school for special children, and we slowly learn what makes them special. That makes for good cinema, trying to figure out why these children wear electronic wristbands and drink strange looking liquids and attend classes but never carry textbooks or seem to learn anything about the world. Once that spell is lifted, I was dispirited in the way the children willfully accept their fate. If there was a character named Logan, he would not be running. That makes the overwrought second half a real grind to get to the expected conclusion, which was foolishly given away in the first scene before the rest of the movie flashed back - WHY do so many films do this??? Usually serves no purpose other than to remove any sense of doubt or, in this case, hope. At least there is some ace photography to help keep attention.