Never Let Me Go

It wasn’t until I saw the trailer for the film adaptation of Never Let Me Go that I knew I had to read the book. The visuals for the film intrigued me in a way that the book cover and summary had not, though we all know movie trailers and dust jackets can be deceiving. How else can we know what goes on inside? It’s like the education of Hailsham students, walking the line between “told, but not told.”

Much of the narrative of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel and Alex Garland’s screenplay is memory, making the sea-air texture of the film suitably nostalgic. One has to wonder, though, what these characters have to be nostalgic for when they’re in their youth. Life at Hailsham hardly seems worth noting. Screenwriter Garland adds his own details to life at Hailsham, and not merely unwarranted, but they don’t add anything, either. While he’s very good at expressing the ideas threaded through Never Let Me Go, the affection or friendship between Kathy and Ruth is decidedly absent. With Tommy, the three are supposed to be inseparable –  whereas it seems that whatever common past they share is a tenuous bond, at best.  I never expect the film of a novel to maintain all aspects of the novel. That said, there were several things I missed, and a few things added erroneously.

For the performances, Andrew Garfield’s Tommy is endearing and heartfelt, and Keira Knightley makes sense as Ruth, even if I expected more of the role. Carey Mulligan, of course, is spot-on as narrator Kathy. Lonely and sympathetic, at times resembling Michelle Williams, her character develops nicely.

Yet somehow, one comes away from the film feeling that something is missing. Then again, maybe that’s one of the many reactions we’re meant to feel from Never Let Me Go: the vague sense that our joys could be more joyous, our losses more somber, and our time together more fulfilling.