Tears of a Clone

Cine Review: NEVER LET ME GO
15 – 103mins – 2011
Screenplay by: Alex Garland
Based on the novel by: Kazuo Ishiguro
Directed by: Mark Romanek
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley, Isobel Meikle-Small, Charlie Rowe, Ella Purnell, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins
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[SPOILERS] Akin to Kazuo Ishiguro’s poignant source novel (reviewed HERE), Mark Romanek’s big screen adaptation of Never Let Me Go divides its narrative into the three core stages of its central characters upbringing: Part one gives us a glimpse into the day-to-day life at the mysterious private school of Hailsham, part two sees the teenagers progress into the more relaxed living space of the Cottages, and part three deals with their brief adult lives as carers and donors before “completion” of their sole purpose: organ donation.

The film’s less than vibrant colour palette was impressively faithful to the imprisoning tone of the novel – there are no attempts to add a layer of Hollywood sheen to the drab British countryside setting or austere Hailsham compound – however I was concerned during the opening sequences of the characters as children that the film would fail to capture the many details and idiosyncrasies which made the novel such a compelling delight. Many of the book’s scenes were played out, but in such a hasty fashion as though they had to be included rather than because the director wanted them.

Fortunately, as soon as the children matured into the lead actors, my anxiety faded and I really began to engage with the three friends – Kathy (Mulligan), Ruth (Knightley) and Tommy ( Garfield ) – and their depressing pre-determined path. Much like the grey tones of the landscape, the actors were sensational at discarding their glamour and really embodying these sad, uncertain husks of humanity. Garfield , in particular, completely gave himself over to naïve but kind-hearted Tommy’s nuances.

A lot of people have queried why the conditioned students accept the inevitable and don’t escape the donor system when they leave Hailsham and move to the Cottages, particularly since they have attested to having souls and free will of their own. This is more a “plot hole” (for lack of a more fitting phrase) with the novel than the film, and Alex Garland’s script does attempt to give a visual (if not spoken) explanation in the form of the bracelet detection scanners seen throughout the character’s stages of growth. Big brother is always watching; it is even next to Kathy’s front door as she leaves for the hospital in her late 20’s.

Kathy’s intermittent narration aside, the film cannot even begin to delve as deeply into these characters’s subconscious as Ishiguro’s point-of-view prose does, yet for all its deficiencies, I still felt emotionally attached to the film’s unravelling drama. Admittedly the film is a slower burner, and the fated characters aren’t as radically proactive as they could/should have been, but – maybe because I have already read the novel – I was touched by its moving depiction of life so short and tragic and unfulfilled.


In a CR@B Shell: Heartbreaking and stirring in equal measures, Never Let Me Go may not quite deliver the sumptuous detail of its source novel, but it more than makes up for its early haste by delivering a hard-hitting message through three powerhouse lead performances.
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Clone Troopers

Book Review: NEVER LET ME GO
Written by: Kazuo Ishiguro
263pages – Faber and Faber – 2005
www.faber.co.uk/author/kazuo-ishiguro/
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Tender and poignant in tone, The Remains of the Day author’s 2005 Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novel is technically a work of science fiction, but it’s science fiction not as we know it. Any readers with an aversion to far-fetched futuristic fantasy should definately not be deterred. For starters, there isn’t a spaceship or laser gun in sight, just a stately private school and a trip to Cromer. Yep, that Cromer. It's hardly a lightsabre duel in Coruscant now, is it?

Set in an alternate-reality where human cloning has been in operation since the war, Never Let Me Go reveals the lives and loves of three close friends as they grow up and come to terms with their pre-determined destiny – to be organ donors in the fight to cure the world’s major diseases.

Set in Britain at the tail-end of the last millennium, the novel is told from the perspective of 31-year-old carer Kathy H., who, over the course of 263 pages recounts in the most vivid detail the incidents which defined her life, from growing up in the mysterious private school of Hailsham, to moving into the Cottages with her closest friends Ruth and Tommy, and on to her time as a carer for fellow clone donors.

“The memories I value most, I don’t see them ever fading”

To think that a Japanese male – albeit one who is now a British citizen – is so proficient at inhabiting the persona and behavioural traits of this British female through the various stages of her life is outstanding; so natural and personal is the free-flowing prose, so mottled with plausible minutiae and authenticated by Kathy’s most raw feelings and opinions. You get to know so much about the narrator and her friends via their day-to-day interractions that you begin to feel like a part of the social circle yourself.

It is to Ishiguro’s credit that the novel often feels like a stream of consciousness piece – although of course it is actually most concisely planned – with Kathy recalling and recollecting countless long-cherished anecdotes and dropping in well-placed revelations which (for our benefit) gradually uncover the truth behind the fuzzy Hailsham operation, as if we too can relate to her experiences.

“I don’t know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham…”

As Kathy, Ruth and Tommy grow, so too does the tone of the novel, with sex and relationships playing a key role in their development into adulthood: arguments escalate, trusts are betrayed and resentments boil over. Kiera Knightley seems to be the perfect choice for the role of Ruth in the upcoming film adaptation, playing a character who matures into a rather snotty and sharp young woman, regularly snapping at naïve-but-endearing Tommy and sincere Kathy.

But no matter how riled up these friends get or how far they physically drift apart as their fate takes hold, the trio will forever have a place for one another in their hearts, and forever hold on to their memories of their time together. For better or worse, Hailsham – with its strict rules, stricter guardians and bizarre obsession with creative encouragement – will always cast a shadow over their lives, but it's a shadow they would never dream of dispelling. And after becoming so utterly engrossed in these tragic character's most tangible experiences, you wouldn't either.


In a CR@B Shell: Kazuo Ishiguro has crafted a fully-developed reality populated with fully-realised characters living pre-destined existences. Never Let Me Go is a compelling and moving portrait which emanates with creativity and soul.

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