I was surprised to find no thread on this one, so unless I missed it, here goes.

This film will surely divide its audience and for the inevitable SPOLIERS, it's with good reason.

There is an inherent flaw with this film, which may madden others to the point of writing it off - why didn't they try to escape their fate? That's a multi-faceted question that would span another movie where the human spirit and its fight for survival is the theme/topic. This film isn't trying to answer those questions. 'Never Let Me Go' is one of the best films of the year, for me. However, to elaborate on why I think so, I do feel I need to look at the notion of the surrender of the characters. Firstly, this story takes place in the lives of 3 characters and we see a brief insight into others' experience with this life. We do not know they haven't rebelled, we do not know there was not a mass rebellion. We simply stay with characters who did not rebel. Secondly, the cult-like adherence to this harvesting of one's organs was a deep-rooted seed that they were trained for from birth - they simply knew no better. This particular point taps into a nature v nurture argument - it provides a fictional perspective from which to debate. And that's one of the qualities this film exudes in bundles: it's allegorical to any number of existential questions.

The two bases here that I took from the movie were: love (and all its complexities/relationships) and death. The futility of life, the power of hope, the force of hopelessness. Philosophically this movie drags you all over the place.

From a practical point of view, the cinematography was beautiful, the performances simply stunning (particularly the children) and the direction was beautifully handled. During the course of the film, there were 4 scenes that will stay with me:

- The revelation to the children that they were a vessel for others survival and that they would sacrifice their own body to enable that process.
- Kathy disappearing into a world of love for Tommy which is interrupted by the defiance, betrayal and fear of Ruth. Stunning acting.
- Ruth's 'completion'. A poignancy that is rarely captured in such a stark manner.
- Tommy's final moments.

There are deep rooted issues explored here that are hardwired into our psyche and that's where the film succeeds. It doesn't exploit the inconceivable horror of the situation but rather it zooms in on the emotions pertinent to our inevitable death.

This film is a tough nut to crack. Overall, I was moved when all is said and done.
I expected an absorbing character study from Mark Romanek and I got it.
His last film, One Hour Photo, lingered in the corner of my brain for a while.

This is a sci-fi premise with no sci-fi devices in it.
An alternate universe like ours but so insular no comparison can be made.
A genre driven plot device that plays out as an intense character study.
Poor Fox Searchlight, their marketing dept. never had a prayer with this one.
The acting, cinematography and direction are spot on.
I have not read the novel, the author is Japanese and this movie feels spartan.
The film has a muted beauty that drew me into its gray world.
It's not for everyone, but it worked very well for me.

Good on you for making a thread for this one.
I wish it got more attention from awards.
It seems that defying classification may be working against this film's success.

E.D.

Glad you too enjoyed this, ED.

Would've been nice to see it get some recognition (and it still might) but nothing can take away its quality.

'One Hour Photo' was a very good film, I agree. As was the 'Scream' video, which I now understand he directed, too - and the most expensive video ever to boot as well.

This was a really great film; strong all around.  I would point to particular things I liked but the film is really just good in every way possible.  Raises endless ideas while never straying one bit outside the very small world of its three main characters.  

If there's one thing writers can take from this film above all else I think that it's that genre need not define focus, or that premise need not define story.  The incredible strength in this film is that while it introduces a very large, important, interesting sci-fi concept, it explores that concept only in ways that are directly important to the story of its main characters.  The points the film has to make, the questions it has to raise, about our lives, were achieved much more in the small human story than in the massive sci-fi concept.

In a way it's sort of an antithesis to Inception.  Nolan was so excited with his interesting premise that he completely ignored his characters.  Romanek and Garland were so excited with their characters that they ignored their interesting premise except where it directly affected the characters.  For this reason, I suspect Never Let Me Go will be one that will stick with people and stand the test of time.  

EDIT:  One little thing I did grumble over was the last few lines of the final voiceover.  It was a super-lame move to hit us over the head with the allegory and then state the theme of the movie, right in the final few seconds.  I assume that it was the studio's call, the big jerks.