By Joshua Knopp/entertainment editor
Time magazine called Never Let Me Go the best novel of 2005 and could soon — and for the same reason — call it the best film of 2010.
The film centers around Kathy (played by both Isobel Meilkle-Small and Carey Mulligan) and her friends Ruth (Ella Purnell, Keira Knightley) and Tommy (Charlie Rowe, Andrew Garfield) through their lives.
They begin at Hailsham, an idyllic school for “special” children where art and organ health are stressed.
Partway through the first act, the audience is made aware of what is special about the Hailsham children and why these stresses are in place.
Never Let Me Go is similar to the eponymous novel on which it is based in that the truth of the matters at hand is revealed slowly through veiled situations and dialogue. Suffice to say, the film is about what does and doesn’t have a soul, in the same vein as I, Robot and Blade Runner.
This movie is one of the most powerful to come out in a long, long time. The dreary, soulless air that carries throughout the narrative extends the hopelessness and resignation of the characters onto the audience. Everything that the characters are put through resonates.
The central plot device of the movie is a love triangle between the main characters. The triangle endures throughout the 16-year span of the story and puts on display their ability to feel love and pain.
The question the audience comes away with isn’t whether or not the characters have souls because the answer is clearly yes.
Rather, the audience must ask themselves how far the soul extends. If you wouldn’t do something to a person because “well … that’s a human being right there,” how many other creatures does that extend to? Modern topics include animals and fetuses but also extend to potential points of debate in the future, such as synthetic humans or artificially intelligent computer systems.
However one feels about animal and abortion rights, Never Let Me Go is worth the money spent to see it and the time spent digesting it. The movie is simply one of the most powerful ever made.
