{"id":1517,"date":"2011-02-06T15:34:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T14:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2011-02-06T15:40:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T14:40:18","slug":"never-let-me-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2011\/02\/06\/never-let-me-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Let Me Go"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Never Let Me Go<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 11 February 2011

\nVenues:<\/B> nationwide

\nDistributor:<\/B> 20th Century Fox

\nDirector:<\/B> Mark Romanek

\nWriter:<\/B> Alex Garland

\nBased on the novel by:<\/B> Kazuo Ishiguro

\nCast:<\/B> Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield

\nUK\/USA 2010

\n103 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Alex Garland writes a screenplay based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Mark Romanek directs. A slow-burning nightmare, as a strange boarding school in a timeless limbo England raises children for a sinister purpose. It’s a film about the evils that can be concealed behind politeness and bureaucracy, and the horrors society is prepared to tolerate if it suits our purposes.<\/p>\n

If I was the ridiculous smart arse that I clearly am I’d try to draw parallels between the film’s theme, where official euphemisms (‘donors’, ‘completion’ etc) are used to make all manner of nastiness acceptable, and the film itself, where a quality cast, a string quartet soundtrack and a little cinematic restraint can be seen to be covering up the fact that this is essentially The Clonus Horror<\/I>\/The Island<\/I> with a university degree.<\/p>\n

This review was first published as part of our coverage of the 2010 London Film Festival<\/A>. <\/div>\n

But I won’t, because it’s actually pretty bloody good, the tastefulness and restraint making the nasty stuff all the more horrible and moving. Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and Charlotte Rampling all do good work, Carey Mulligan is great. I think the film loses something and becomes more clearly an adaptation of a novel after it leaves the weird bubble of Hailsham House. But it still weaves a disconcerting spell.<\/p>\n

Mark Stafford<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/B><\/p>\n