Never Let Me Go (2010)

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Overview

Never Let Me Go is a dystopian drama/sci-fi film released in 2010 starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the film was directed by Mark Romanek, with screenplay written by Alex Garland. The film was produced by Film4 and DNA Films, with a budget of around $15 million. Never Let Me Go was premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, followed by screenings at the Toronto Film Festival and the London Film Festival. Fox Searchlight Pictures gave the film a limited release in the United States in September, with a UK release in January 2011.

Creation

Work on a film adaptation had already begun in 2005, before the novel had been released. Garland had received an early copy of the book from Ishiguro in order to suggest improvements, and had begun writing what became a 96-page script. Having secured the rights to the story from Ishiguro, Garland then approached producers Andrew Macdonald and Allon Reich (who worked through their company, DNA Films) to begin the production process.

Plot Summary

In 1952, a scientific breakthrough is discovered, allowing for a new form of medical treatment to be implemented. As a result, diseases that were previously considered terminal have since become easily curable and by 1967, the average life expectancy passed 100 years.

1970s

The narrator, Kathy H, begins by retelling periods of her childhood spent at Hailsham, an ostensibly traditional British boarding school, with her close friends Tommy and Ruth. In the opening scene, the headmistress of the establishment, Miss Emily, addresses the recovery of cigarettes used by students. She chastises this behaviour, reminding the children of the importance that they remain healthy in order to fulfil their purpose. Their willingness to obey those in authority in Hailsham is later re-affirmed when the newest teacher, Miss Lucy, queries a group of girls as to why they didn’t retrieve a cricket ball that had been hit outside the grounds. They insist that leaving Hailsham would almost certainly result in fatal consequences, citing the rumour of a young boy who had been brutally maimed and murdered for his actions.

In a later scene, Miss Lucy spends one her classes explaining to the children their purpose in life - to provide vital body parts to unhealthy patients and that as a result, their lives will be likely be both limited and short. The class show little emotion, signalling that they were aware and had already accepted this truth. The following day, they are informed that Miss Lucy would no longer be working at the school. Tommy becomes increasingly frustrated by his time in the school, as his peers consistently tease and exclude him from their activities. Kathy, however, takes pity on him and the pair become close despite their vastly different demeanours. Despite Kathy’s clearly requited affections for him, Ruth decides to approach Tommy, resulting in them starting a relationship together which continued throughout their time at Hailsham.

The Cottages, 1985

Having completed their education, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth are moved to rural cottages, located on farm land. By now, restrictions surrounding their leaving of designated premises have been lifted entirely, having be trained how to behave when living outside of Hailsham. Despite their apparent freedom, they do not hint at any attempts to permanently avoid their ultimate purpose and continue to check in and out of the cottages with their electronic tags. During their time here, they are revealed to be clones.

Several of the characters attempt to find their ‘originals’; Kathy searches in a pornographic magazine while Ruth travels to a nearby office - both to no avail. Ruth’s failure leads her to believe that they were all modelled on ‘trash’. The trio befriend an Irish couple who quiz them about the possibility of a deferral - believing it possible for some donor candidates to delay their fate if they could sufficiently prove their love for a fellow clone.

Kathy perceives Ruth’s public affection for Tommy to be inappropriate, culminating in the breakdown of their friendship together. Feeling isolated, Kathy decides to leave the cottages to become a carer. In doing so, Kathy temporarily delays her own donation schedule for several years in order to tend to her fellow clones who are close to ‘completing’ (the term used to describe their death). During Kathy’s time away, Tommy and Ruth end their relationship together.

Completion, 1994

Kathy, 9 years after having left the cottages, has continued to work as a carer but has not attempted to make contact with Ruth or Tommy since her departure. While consulting an administrative nurse at the hospital where she works, she notices the patient profile of Ruth. The nurse reveals that she is in a weakened state, having already made two donations. Kathy makes contact with her and the two quickly rekindle their friendship. Realising the limited time they have left, Ruth reluctantly agrees to see Tommy again, who has also made two donations.

Now reunited, Kathy drives them to the beach where they reflect on their time together at Hailsham. At this point, Ruth apologises for taking Tommy away from Kathy, admitting she only did so because she was jealous and fearful of isolation. In a bid to partially make up for her behaviour, she encourages them to pursue the possibility of a deferral. Although Kathy had previously expressed doubts over the existence of deferrals, she and Tommy agree to request one. A short time after their day-trip together, Ruth ‘completes’ after her third donation.

Having being told in Hailsham that their artistic compositions acted as windows into their souls, Tommy frantically begins completing paintings and sketches in order to prove his love for Kathy. Together, they present the works to Miss Emily, their former headmistress. She reveals that deferrals never existed and that the purpose of the art was not to look into their souls, but rather to see if they had souls at all. Hailsham had been conducting these tests to further explore the ethical questions raised over cloning, before ultimately deciding to continue their actions. As a result, Tommy’s art would serve no purpose at all and he would still have to make his third donation. During the car journey home, Tommy’s emotions overspill into a fit of anger in response to his immanent separation from Kathy, while Kathy quietly and reservedly appears to accept her powerless situation.

The film ends with Kathy viewing Tommy as he is being prepared for his third and ultimately final donation. As his operation begins, Kathy reveals that her own donations are scheduled to begin in just one month. She then philosophises about the very nature of life, drawing parallels with those who will have their own death delayed as resulting of her own impending end.

Production

In 2008, production began to gain momentum. Mark Romanek was initially slated to direct The WolfMan, but decided to end his involvement with the movie before principal photography began. Instead, he chose to accept the offer from Reich and Macdonald to direct Never Let Me Go, excited by the opportunity to tackle a story of this type. Initially, Romanek was unsure about whether to place a greater emphasis on the dystopian, science-fiction elements of the story or to promote the dramatic aspects -

"We always knew that the science fiction needed to be extremely subtle. That’s the way it is in the book, and that was an exciting challenge. But it was hard to find a template of a film like that... One day we just went, I think I just said, “You know what? There shouldn't be any science fiction in this film at all.” And everybody got really excited by that. Everybody got really excited by this science fiction film with no science fiction tropes. Because the thing that felt wrong about it to me, and I didn't realize this without going through this process, was that the film is about time and the preciousness of time and how little time we have. And I guess in the back of my mind I felt like we needed to see the effect of time on things. Things needed to be old, not new and worn and not perfect."

Casting

Romanek initially had difficulty in finding someone who he felt could play Kathy - requiring two actresses to play her as a child and adult. Peter Rice, who was the head of Fox Searchlight, knew of Romanek’s casting issues and so felt compelled to send him a text message saying “Hire the genius Mulligan”. Rice was watching An Education at the time of sending the message and was so taken with lead actress Carey Mulligan that he felt she would fit the role perfectly, despite being a relative newcomer.

Garfield, Meikle-Small and Mulligan

Mulligan herself was delighted with the offer of the role, citing the novel as one of her favourite books (after being recommended to her by her mother) and was intent on playing the role of Kathy should an adaptation ever go into production. However, an opportunity to audition for the film evaded her due to "a financing thing". Mulligan suggests that it was only after appearing in An Education that "it was worth me being able to audition" for the part, having since been able to attract the attention of film producers. Also occupying the role of Kathy was Isobel Meikle-Small, who played the character during her childhood. Meikle-Small met with Mulligan on several occasions during filming in order to discuss their character in order to ensure they delivered a similar tone. Meikle-Small says that she and Mulligan agreed “to keep it simple”, deciding against any particular mannerisms that would help establish a link between the young and old versions of Kathy.

Andrew Garfield was cast as Tommy, a boy with anger issues who finds acceptance and friendship in Kathy. Garfield was attracted to the role, citing the character’s complexities, as well as the profound questions of life the story poses to its audience. The casting of Garfield also came shortly before he found mainstream attention following high profile roles in The Social Network and the Spider-Man reboot. Garfield also expressed his enjoyment of Charlie Rowe’s portrayal of a young Tommy. As Rowe’s version of the character appeared on-screen first, Garfield had to ensure that his performance was in line with the younger actor’s interpretation - an experience which he described as “incredibly liberating and challenging”.

Knightley and Purnell

On March 1st 2009, it was confirmed that Keira Knightley had signed on to appear in the film, though it was not announced that she would be taking the role of Ruth until a later date. Knightley later confirmed that the primary motivation for taking the part was for the opportunity to work with close friend Carey Mulligan. Mulligan, who had previously worked with Knightley in Pride & Prejudice, convinced her to sign on to the film having been given the green light to offer her the part. Ella Purnell, making her film debut, was chosen to play Ruth during her childhood.

Supporting roles went to Sally Hawkins as Miss Lucy, Charlotte Rampling as Miss Emily, Nathalie Richard as Madame, Domhnall Gleeson as Rodney and Andrea Riseborough as Chrissie.

Filming

Principal photography for Never Let Me Go commenced mid-April, 2009, with performance scenes being shot in early May. Ironically, the section of the film which takes place in Norfolk on the east coast was actually shot in various locations in North Somerset, on the opposite side of the country.

Clevedon Pier, as featured in Never Let Me Go

The beach and pier scenes were shot in and around Clevedon Pier. The pier itself, a Victorian structure which had only been restored and re-opened in 1998, featured heavily in both the film and the promotional posters.

Ham House in Richmond, Surrey, (also featured in The Young Victoria and Spice World) was chosen for the imposing external shots of Hailsham. Several of the internal scenes were shot at Forest School, Snaresbrook.

As the opening act of the story is told as a flashback, Romanek had to take steps to maintain a certain level of continuity between the child and adult versions of the characters. In order to achieve this, Romanek let Mulligan, Garfield and Knightley rehearse the scene together with Meikle-Small, Rowe and Purnell watching before the young actors then performed the same scene themselves. Romanek also hoped that by doing this, the older actors would have some form of ’memory’ from which to draw upon when shooting their own scenes. Additionally, he also swapped in and out the sets of actors during rehearsals, so that an older Kathy would interact with a young Tommy etc. in order to get a more rounded understanding of their characters.

Romanek also brought the two sets of actors to the grounds of what would be Hailsham school, allowing them to play hide-and-seek with each other and talk with their respective fellow actor in order to bond further and let their “mannerisms blur a little bit”.

One of the biggest issues that faced the production process was one of the final scenes in the film, in which Kathy was required to drive a car with Tommy in the passenger seat. At the time, Carey Mulligan was not a licensed driver and so underwent a two-week crash course session of driving lessons (amounting to 7 hours a day, according to Mulligan) in order to be able to film the scene. Ultimately, however, she failed the test. Instead, a private road was hired for filming, allowing her to drive without a full license.

Mulligan has since revealed that her favourite part of the film to make was the voice-over segments, of which several were used during her audition:

"I loved the voice-over so much. It was my hook in...my favourite thing about [the film] and we recorded it over the course of a year, maybe 8 or 9 times and every time I did it, it would take 2 and a half hours in the studio and I just loved it. I loved doing it and I always never felt like it was quite right, and still [don't]. I could just do it forever.

The manner in which the narration was delivered underwent several major changes. In one variation, Kathy writes the story to place into a time capsule for people to find in the future; another would feature her telling her story to a friend or recounting the events as part of an interview. The tone of the narration also changed significantly throughout the production cycle. During several recordings, Mulligan broke down crying due to the emotional nature of the narration, leading to the producers asking her to try a more reserved delivery of lines.

Critical Reception

Reviews of Never Let Me Go were largely positive, holding a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 70%. Guardian and BBC Radio 5 Live critic Mark Kermode admitted that while the film had some minor flaws, he found it to be “very moving”, praising the three lead actors. Additionally, he was highly critical of Fox Searchlight’s presentation of the film to the public, saying: “…the publicists' almost obtuse refusal to acknowledge the story's [sci-fi] genre roots and market it instead as merely an enigmatic love story probably turned away more viewers than it attracted.”

Mulligan, Knightley and Garfield on set

Roger Ebert also gave a favourable review to Never Let Me Go, awarding it 4 stars, though promoted the opposite sentiment to Kermode. He suggests that Romanek “would have made a serious error in ramping up contrived melodrama toward some sort of science-fiction showdown. This is a movie about empathy.”

Tom Long of Detroit News remarked that the three leads were “fine” (labelling Mulligan as the stand-out performer), but felt that the seemingly passive nature of the characters was “hard to believe” and did not seem “real”. Reviewers have also highlighted the extent to which the film remains faithful to the book. Controversial critic Armond White suggested that Romanek and Garland created the film “with stultifying fidelity to the source novel”. However, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Jay A. Fernandez suggested that the film failed to capture the emotionally fragile nature of the book, while Mark Jenkins suggested that despite “a few missteps”, Never Let Me Go was a “remarkably successful adaptation”.

Box Office Performance

Never Let Me Go was given a limited release in the United States, opening in just 4 theatres on September 15th, 2010, eventually being shown in over 160 more theatres. It grossed $44,500 on its opening day, going on to take $111,700 during its opening weekend. The film’s second week of circulation saw an increased number of theatre’s screening Never Let Me Go, going on to take $241,000, making it into the top 30 grossing films of that week.

Having earned $350,000 during its fourth week in circulation, Fox Searchlight increased the number of theatre’s showing the film to over 200. However, audience attendance was sufficiently low that some cinemas cancelled the following week’s screenings altogether. By the end of its theatrical run, the total domestic gross in the US was just under $2.5 million - some way off its $15 million budget. Fox Searchlight executives blame the relatively poor US performance on a number of factors, including the divided critical response, the timeframe in which it was released, the somewhat dark, adult subject matter, the struggle to attract male audiences and the difficulty in marketing a book adaptation.

The film was released in the UK on February 11th, 2011 and enjoyed a comparably better box office performance than in the US. Opening with a wider 265 screen release, Never Let Me Go took £625,000 in its opening weekend, managing to place 9th in the box office top 10. The following week, the film slipped down the charts, having taken £338,404. It went on to take over $7 million in foreign markets, resulting in a worldwide gross of just under $9.5 million.

Never Let Me Go was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the US on February 1st, 2011. Combined domestic sales have taken almost $2 million. It was released in the UK and Ireland on June 27th, 2011.

Awards