NEVER LET ME GO (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Mark Romanek
Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley,
Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins, Izzy Meikle-Small,
Charlie Rowe, Ella Purnell, Domhnall Gleeson,
Andrea Riseborough, Nathalie Richard, Hannah Sharp
British boarding-school students form a contentious three-way friendship while being groomed for their mandated mission in life: to donate their organs in a series of surgeries, up to the point where they flatline and are declared "completed." There are elements of sci-fi and horror in this, but it's so low-key and beautifully done, you might not notice. As creep shows go, it's uncommonly smart and quiet, and the story, based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, does a nice job of subverting expectations. The colors are muted, the sets and costumes are from another time, and the young actors who play the Mulligan, Garfield and Knightley characters as 12-year-olds are nicely cast. It's a movie that finds eeriness in restraint.
