Review of Never Let Me Go (2010) by Shawn E — 09 Mar 2015

Yes, you follow the 3 characters, their stories so rich and wondrous.

But you also are following the society in which they exist, trying from the start to determine what exactly is happening here, how it all works-and why. Part of the brilliance of the writing is that the repugnance of the society slowly emerges from the haze, and then suddenly, upon one kind-of-off-hand sentence, a tossed-off rhetorical question, all falls into place, and you see clearly the deep, hidden shame, as the society simultaneously accepts and hides its face from an obvious evil. It's a shame that the human race is more than capable of willfully bearing. After all, didn't virtually all the people of the South support slavery?

The depiction of this hermetically sealed society, and world, is beautifully done. The implications of the society, and the characters and fates of the young people within it, are food for thought for weeks after seeing the movie.

PS: That said, I am mystified as to how Keira Knightly ever gets work. She's one of those British actors that, in my opinion, is all technique-and not a very intelligent technique at that-and zero humanity, no soul. The worst of the Brit tradition. I loved the other two characters, but was emotionally divorced from Knightly's character. I feel the role would have been vastly improved in the hands of a good actor.