Never Let Me Go (2010)

This was beautiful and sad and would have been surprising had I not accidentally read the second sentence of the netflix description, so beware (unless you've already read the Kazuo Ishiguro novel). With an Oscar-worthy soundtrack (here's a taste) by Rachel Portman, it could easily get Carey Mulligan another nomination (as she did in An Education; her breakthrough role was as Keira Knightley's sister Kitty Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (2005)). Mulligan's face speaks volumes without her opening her mouth, and when she does, we feel the great burdens her character Kathy endures here. Knightley's (I'm finally beginning to warm to her a little; I did love Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and liked The Duchess; anyone could have filled her roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, in my opinion) work is fine here as Ruth, but it's Mulligan's movie, though Andrew Garfield (also great in The Social Network and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) does a great job as Tommy, and the supporting cast is also outstanding: Izzy Meikle-Small, making her feature debut as young Kathy, Ella Purnell (also a debut, with two upcoming) as young Ruth, and Charlotte Rampling (after I wrote my faves in The Duchess, she had a cameo in Life During Wartime, which I forgot to mention), Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky and a small but pivotal role in Mulligan's An Education), and Nathalie Richard (many credits, my favorite of which was Irma Vep (1996), in which she played the cute wardrobe mistress with a crush on Maggie Cheung) as some of the teachers/adults in their lives.

Most of the PR for this movie says, "From the director of One Hour Photo," which was a good and creepy 2002 movie with Robin Williams, and the only other feature directed by Mark Romanek (he's done some documentary work). Alex Garland, who adapted Ishiguro's novel for the screen, is a novelist himself; his first, The Beach, was adapted into the 2000 Danny Boyle-directed, Leo DiCaprio-starring movie of the same name. He's written two other novels and two more Boyle-directed screenplays (28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007)). Ishiguro's novel, a finalist for the Booker Prize and also titled Never Let Me Go, is his sixth and most recent, published in 2005. His third, the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day from 1989, was made into a 1993 movie of the same name nominated for eight Oscars, including for Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in the leading roles and James Ivory for directing, but it didn't win any. I was interested to learn that producer Andrew Macdonald has produced, among others, six of Boyle's nine movies (three above, plus Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996), and A Life Less Ordinary (1997)--not Millions, Slumdog Millionaire, nor 127 Hours, which is to be released next week), and was the producer to whom Garland brought his spec script when the novel was not yet published.

Portman, who was Oscar-nominated for the scores for The Cider House Rules (1999) and Chocolat (2000), won for Emma (1996), and also scored The Duchess, has given us mesmerizing music to which I'm listening as I type. Some of the other songs in this movie are listed at imdb, which does not disclose the spoiler that's on netflix (to be fair, the fact is revealed about 30 minutes in). Since I'm a bit behind in writing, I haven't had a chance to read all the interesting-looking stuff on the movie's official website, so have at it.

Sorry, but we waited so long to see this, and then I took longer to write, that it's left the big screens in our area. The projected DVD release is February 2011. You probably shouldn't watch it in bed because I advise watching something that will make you laugh before going to sleep if you, like I, watch TV in bed). Do something fun or funny afterwards. But do see it.