I saw the trailer for Never Let Me Go and it reminded me of one of my favorite books: Neal Shusterman's Unwind. The concepts of "donations" and "completion" were similar to the "unwinding" in Unwind, and since I loved that concept in Unwind, I decided to watch Never Let Me Go.
I know that Never Let Me Go is based on a book of the same name; however, I have not read the book. I almost always prefer to read the book before seeing the movie, but in this case, due to lack of reading time, I made an exception.
My first problem with Never Let Me Go was that I had a really hard time understanding the dialogue. All of the characters have British accents (something I usually enjoy), but they spoke very quickly and were all "low talkers." I couldn't turn the volume up high enough to hear everything properly without blasting my husband and baby out of the house, so, about 15 minutes in, I ended up turning on the subtitles.
So, subtitles on, I settled in to watch the rest of the movie. I will admit that I knew the premise of the story because I read the plot on IMDB. I know, I know, I broke all of my rules with this movie! I don't think I would have known what was going on had I not read the plot, though, so I'm glad I did.
Never Let Me Go is an emotional thriller. There is not a lot of excitement, just sadness. The characters are steeped in a pervasive desperation, enveloped in quiet despair. One thing that bothered me was how skinny the characters are. You'd think that a boarding school devoted to keeping its students in perfect health would have fed them more!
The entire movie mad me so sad that when the credits started rolling I told my husband I would have been better off watching Parks and Recreation (which was my other available choice). Never Let Me Go had the emotional impact of Unwind, but without the hopeful ending. I would recommend it for people looking for a movie that makes you think. If you want to be entertained and uplifted (like me), then try something else.
I watched this movie and was so upset with Ruth! That girl drove me crazy! And the other girl, I forgot her name, I cried for her. She deserved so much more.
ReplyDeleteWow, I had such a different experience - I gave the movie five stars! I loved it. But I had already read the book so maybe it helped that I knew what I was in for. You're right, it's definitely an "experience" and you have to be in the mood for it. :)
ReplyDeleteMy book club read this book and we were going to watch the movie however, we all agreed that it was just so depressing. So we watched The Island instead. Which is somewhat similiar but more sci-fi/action and had a better ending! I borrowed this movie from my co-worker but ended up returning it to her w/o watching it!
ReplyDelete