Review of Never Let Me Go (2010) by Stephanie P — 09 May 2013
Nice acting, shame about the unoriginal premise (and much of the plot). A whole load of people seem to have been cloned(?) for the sole purpose of having bits of them 'harvested' to help the rest of the 'real' people live longer, healthier lives (sound familiar?).
One presumes it's set in a 'parallel universe' where everything is a bit the same as real life but quite a bit different. I have to admit the acting was thoughtful, 'real' and (mostly) unpretentious (although Carey Mulligan's dreamy, gentle, sensitive, doe-eyed calmness could drive you batty at times).
The thing about Never Let me Go is that it begs questions; many questions! Why did none of the 'clones' rebel? Why didn't they run away?! Who was stopping them? Why were they so accepting of their fate? Why were they all so vague and dreamy and unquestioning?.
Obviously the writer intended to all be a bit vague and for the viewer to make his or her assumptions but it came across as more of a 'plot fault' - how can we believe these individuals have no way of escaping their fates if you don't show us some indication of what would happen if they dared to rebel? People get brainwashed all the time, but even some of those lured into the Moonies manage to get out for crying out loud! .
This 'brave new world' was just too undefined to be believable; some 'regular' people obviously felt badly for the clones, others just accepted them as a necessity of life. The whole premise was over familiar and under-explored and the 'world' so vaguely presented it was hard to drum up much sympathy for the hapless clones.
Did I care? Not really. It's been done before and sure, they all had nice accents, and funny old-fashioned clothes and were very gentle and proper but the only point this movie made was: clones are human too, live and feel emotion as like 'normal' humans and die as normal humans (albeit a bit sooner).
Moral of story: unethical treatment of clones enables regular humans to live a bit longer - sad innit?
This review of Never Let Me Go (2010) was written by Stephanie P on 09 May 2013.
Never Let Me Go has generally received positive reviews.
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