Never Let Me Go

Around the end of February two of us profs at DTS met with an art preparer at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), because we take our Creative Writing students to the DMA, and he is putting together a personalized tour for us. As it “happened,” he also formerly attended a church that both of us had once attended—perhaps even at the same time we were there.

So we got way “off topic.” And as part of our digression, we spent a long time talking about movies that make us think.

A few weeks later, he emailed me to say “I’d really like to hear your take on ‘Never Let Me Go,’ once you see it. I found it to be the darkest, most depressing, disturbing, and heart-breaking movie I think I’ve ever seen. Sounds like a great recommendation, right? Plus, art plays a pivotal role in the story. I’d say ‘Hope you enjoy it,’ but I don’t know if you can ‘enjoy’ a movie like this. I found it to be an absolutely devastating critique of our culture.”

Still, he highly recommended it. So I stuck it in the Netflix queue, and this week my hubby and I finally got around to watching it.

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel, it’s a sci-fi drama told from the point of view of a thirtysomething woman played by Carey Mulligan, who looks back on her time spent at Hailsham, an English boarding school, alongside classmates played by Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. Born to donate their organs to others, the three struggle with their destiny and their love triangle.

I should add that the film received an “R” rating for brief moments of skin.

I would agree with my artist friend’s assessment. The film considers what it means to be human, the value of human life, and how one of the steps in the path to ravaging others is to consider them sub-human. The flick also causes viewers to consider what we want out of life, since we’re all, as my father says, “terminal cases.” And it shows how futile existence is without love and hope.