Never Let Me Go
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightly
Director: Mark Romanek
Rating: 3/5
If you only looked at their movie counterparts, you could quite easily think that books are the home of depression, sorry and loss.
Throughout the years, more bleak times have been had in acclaimed books than by Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan's agents combined.
Never Let Me Go is this month's pitch black book adaptation, and while it may shred your soul, it's defiantly worth the ride.
This film tells the story of Kathy, Tommy and Ruth (Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightly), who have grown up together in the mysterious Hailsham boarding school.
As they grow older, Kathy and Ruth both struggle for the affections of Tommy, all while coming to terms with the hope crushing fate of Hailsham students.
While this emotional turmoil and the grim realities the trio face are great, the film becomes overcome and bogged down by asking the bigger questions of life and love.
Add in a simply pedestrian pace, and the film sometimes becomes too much of slog, spending too much time with the threesome as kids.
It's not all in vain though.
This film's golden ticket is the trio of Mulligan, Garfield and Knightly. They carry the film over its bumpy patches, making what would be bland characters feel real.
Mulligan shines through though as the heartbroken Kathy, every nuance, twitch and ripe with emotion. This is a performance that truly confirms her as one of acting's brightest stars.
Never Let Me Go is a heartbreaking, expertly acted film that manages to overcome stodgy pacing and slightly beige characters to deliver one of the best emotion sucker-punches of the last few years.
It's just a shame that it tries a little too hard to be a little too big for its own good.
Never Let Me Go is out now.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith