Never Let Me Go (2010 film)
Encyclopedia
Never Let Me Go is a 2010 British dystopian
drama film
based on Kazuo Ishiguro
's 2005 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Mark Romanek
from a screenplay by Alex Garland
. Never Let Me Go is set in an alternate history and centers on Kathy, Ruth and Tommy who are portrayed by Carey Mulligan
, Keira Knightley
and Andrew Garfield
respectively. The three, who become entangled in a love triangle, are scientific specimens
created in a laboratory to provide their organs to severely ill patients. Principal photography
began in April 2009 and lasted several weeks. The movie was filmed at various locations, including Andrew Melville Hall
. Never Let Me Go was produced by DNA Films
and Film4
on a $15 million budget.
Prior to the book's publication, Garland had approached the film's producers—Andrew Macdonald and Andrew Reich—about a possible film, and wrote a 96-page script. The producers initially had trouble finding an actress to play Kathy; Mulligan was cast in the role after Peter Rice, the head of the company financing the film, recommended her by text message while watching her performance in An Education
. Mulligan, a fan of the book, enthusiastically accepted the role, as it had long been a wish of hers to have the opportunity to play the part. The film's message and themes were the factors that attracted Garfield to become a part of the film.
Never Let Me Go premiered at the 37th annual Telluride Film Festival
in September 2010, where the audience positively responded to its message. The film was also screened at festivals including the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
, and the 54th London Film Festival (which it opened). The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
to cinemas in the United States on 15 September 2010, where it was given a limited release
. It opened on 14 January 2011 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Never Let Me Go opened at four theatres, grossing over $111,000 during its first weekend, eventually growing to $2.5 million. The movie got off to a better start in its first weekend in the UK, earning £625,000 (US$1,009,750) and taking ninth place at the box office.
To date, Never Let Me Go has earned $9.4 million at the box office and an additional $1.8 million in DVD sales revenue. Never Let Me Go was met with generally positive reviews from film critics, with most reviewers praising the cast's overall performances. It was placed on several critics' top ten lists for the year.
) as she reminisces about her childhood at a boarding school
called Hailsham
, as well as her adult life after leaving the school. The first act of the film depicts the young Kathy, along with her friends Tommy (Andrew Garfield
) and Ruth (Keira Knightley
), spending their childhood at Hailsham in the late 1970s. The school seems to be somewhat unusual. Students are encouraged to create art work such as paintings and poetry instead of science and math normal for school children. And their best work gets into "The Gallery". There is also a strong emphasis on "keeping yourselves healthy inside". At one point, a new teacher, Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins
) quietly informs the students of their nature: they exist only for donor organs for transplants, and will die in their late twenties. The following day Miss Lucy is "no longer working at Hailsham". As time passes, Kathy falls in love with Tommy, but Ruth starts a relationship with him. They stay together throughout the rest of their time at Hailsham.
In the second act of the film, the three friends, now young adults, are rehoused in cottages on a farm. They are permitted to leave the grounds if they wish but are resigned to their eventual fate, seeing it as inevitable. At the farm, they meet former pupils of schools similar to theirs. At one point, two of the others take Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth to a nearby town to see if a woman they had previously seen is Ruth's "original", the person she was modeled on. Ruth is very excited at first, but when she sees that the woman doesn't look like her, she gets disappointed and angry, and says they should never have expected they could find her original in a high-class place, because they are all "modeled on trash" and their originals can be found "in the gutter", meaning junkies and prostitutes, "maybe as long as they're not mad".
From the others, Kathy and her friends hear rumors of the possibility of "deferral" – a temporary reprieve from organ donation for clones who are in love and can somehow prove it. Tommy becomes convinced that The Gallery at Hailsham, was intended to look into their souls and that artwork sent to The Gallery will be able to verify true love. The relationship between Tommy and Ruth becomes sexual, and jealousy causes Kathy and Ruth to break their friendship. Kathy, who can no longer put up with loneliness, becomes a "carer" – a clone who is given a temporary reprieve from donation to do the job of supporting and comforting donors as they give up their organs. In time, Tommy and Ruth's relationship ends, though it happens after Kathy has left and is not depicted.
In the third and final act of the film, 10 years later, Kathy is working as a carer. She has watched many clones gradually die as their organs are harvested; their deaths are referred to as "completion". Kathy hasn't seen Ruth or Tommy since the cottages. While working as a carer, Kathy happens to find Ruth who is frail after two donations. They find Tommy, who is also weakened by his donations, and drive to the sea as a short trip. There, Ruth admits that she has always known that Kathy and Tommy were meant to be together because their love for each other was real, whereas Ruth was with Tommy because she was afraid to be alone. She is consumed with guilt and has been searching for a way to help Tommy and Kathy. She has found the address of the gallery owner, Madame from Hailsham, whom she thinks may grant deferrals to couples in love. Ruth dies on the operating table
shortly afterward.
Tommy explains to Kathy that he has been creating art in the hope that it will convince Madame to give them a deferral. He and Kathy drive to visit Madame, who lives with the headmistress of Hailsham. The two teachers sympathetically tell them that there is no deferral. They also explain that the purpose of The Gallery was to show people that the clones were human and had a soul to maybe challenge the ethics of the creation of donors. Hailsham was, in fact, the last place to consider the ethical implications of the donor program and try to improve conditions for clones. It had closed down owing to lack of funding, because people simply did not want to think about where the transplant organs came from. As they take in the news on their return journey, Tommy breaks down in an explosion of rage and frustration while Kathy resignedly accepts her fate. The film ends with Tommy being anesthetized on the operating table for what would be his last organ donation. Kathy is left alone, knowing that her organ donations will begin in one month. Contemplating the ruins of her childhood, she asks in voice-over
whether her fate is really any different from the people who will receive her organs: after all, "we all complete" and we all have the feeling we never had enough time.
Andrew Garfield believes the story of Never Let Me Go is about humans, and exploring "what it is to have a soul, and how you prove what a soul is"; he says he enjoys the way the film is a "call to arms" about the positives of life. He adds that its message could hopefully remind people that they have a choice when they arise in the morning whether to pursue their own choice of activities for the day, or to do what they should do or are obligated to do. Keira Knightley feels that the film's story is alarming, but has said that the film is "more about humanity's ability to look the other way". "You know in fact that if your morals can go out the window if you think you can survive in a certain way, whatever your morals may be".
, a long-time friend of Ishiguro, asked the author for the rights to the novel before he had finished reading it. Before the novel was published in 2005, Garland had already written a script for a possible film. He gave the screenplay to two producers, Andrew Macdonald
and Allon Reich, and development started at that moment. "We are delighted to be shooting this special project, which Alex Garland first brought to us before the book's publication in 2005." The script for the film was 96 pages long, done in chapters. Director Mark Romanek was originally attached to The WolfMan
, but when he was dropped from that production for an unknown reason, he accepted the offer to work on Never Let Me Go. The movie was made into a dystopian drama. Romanek was glad to get the opportunity to shoot this film: "From the moment I finished [reading] the novel, it became my dream to film it. Ishiguro's conception is so daring, so eerie and beautiful. Alex Garland's adaptation is sensitive and precise. The cast is perfect, the crew superb." The Seattle Times
observed that the project was "something of a departure" for the novelist, noting that it merges Ishiguro's signature "elegant prose with a decidedly science-fiction theme".
Garland, who has explored science fiction themes in some of his previous work, was a sounding board for ideas for the novel and an early reader of the book. Ishiguro stated that, despite Garland's screenwriting skills and previous experience with film, they did not discuss the idea of a film until after the novel was complete. "I try not to think about things like that when writing a novel—in fact, quite the reverse," he stated. He said that he attempts to "go for something... very interior, following thoughts and memories, something that I think is difficult to do on the screen, which is essentially a third-person medium." Thus he was surprised when Garland, after reading a complete version of the book, said he would like to try to adapt it. Ishiguro recalled that Garland wrote a draft very quickly and immediately asked of his opinion of it "as a first go". Ishiguro was very satisfied with Garland's screenplay—which was changed very little from its initial draft to the filmed version—and with the final film. When asked to compare the experience with that of The Remains of the Day
, he acknowledged that both were more hands-on with this film. Romanek said that he did not make Never Let Me Go a science fiction film; rather he was presenting a love story with fictional science context mixed in. He described the film as telling a "love story where the science fiction is this subtle patina on the story." The filmmaker explained that had they done the film with "science fiction-y things", it would have been more openly, with props such as futuristic structures and devices.
plays the narrator, Kathy, a passive woman who projects both innocence and knowingness. Prior to her casting, Mulligan had already read the novel a few times, considering it to be a favourite of hers. She recalled that from when she first read the book three years ago she had wanted to play Kathy. The young actress said that she could not "bear the idea of anyone else" portraying Kathy, although she acknowledged that she thought other people would be able to do a better performance. She was certain that someone would make a film adaptation
of the novel and had hoped that they would wait until she would be old enough to play the character. Romanek told The Los Angeles Times that he originally was having difficultly finding the right actress to play Kathy; a tight filming deadline loomed prior to Mulligan's casting. Peter Rice, the head of Fox Searchlight (the company financing the film) was watching An Education
at the Sundance Film Festival
in January. He wrote Romanek a four-word text message: "Hire the genius Mulligan." When later asked why the message was so abrupt, he explained that he was still in the middle of viewing the film. Rice exhibited what was described as a "rare foresight" in greenlighting a film with an almost unknown lead actress. "He just knew that she was it," said Romanek.
Andrew Garfield
was given the role of Tommy, a confused boy trying to fit into his imperfect world. He said of his character, "There's a sense of anxiety that runs through these kids, especially Tommy, because he's so sensory and feeling and animalistic, that's my perspective of him." Garfield was attracted to the film based on the existential questions the story expresses. He called the experience of being a part of Never Let Me Go a "dream to come true". Garfield enjoys an opportunity to let loose with his roles. He said the scenes in which his character—unable to contain his frustration—erupts with a wail, was "intense" for him. "I think those screams are inside all of us, I just got a chance to let mine out". Before shooting the film, he had read the screenplay and the book. In March 2009 Daily Variety reported that Knightley was signed to the project. Knightley admitted that she only agreed to appear in Never Let Me Go because co-star and friend Mulligan had asked her to. She portrays Ruth, who Knightley confesses acts manipulatively. When asked what she did and did not have in common with her character, Knightley said she was unable to relate to Ruth's situation of being involved in a love triangle.
The three lead characters do not have last names because "they are not normal people." Romanek believed that the three main characters act with intense dignity. He noted that they are not materialistic or looking for power, but just desire to acknowledge their love for each other and stay close in their friendship. An example he mentioned was how Ruth tries to seek redemption by attempting to set right a big mistake she'd made. What he found the most moving aspect of the film was the "graceful place of acceptance that Kathy comes to at the end." Child actors Isobel Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell
, and Charlie Rowe
play the younger versions of Never Let Me Gos three lead actors. Hawkins, who co-starred with Mulligan in An Education, had a supporting role as Miss Lucy, who is a teacher at an isolated English boarding school where the students slowly become aware of the fact that they are feared by people in the outside world. Charlotte Rampling
portrays Miss Emily, a schoolmaster who presides over the orphanage at Hailsham. Richard was cast as an administrator, who is known as Madame. The character has been conducting an ongoing project that aims to analyse the students’ characters and psychologies, which has been compared to treating them as if they were subjects in an experiment. Riseborough's casting in Never Let Me Go was announced in April 2009 by Screen Daily; she had a small role in the film.
for the film started in April 2009 and lasted a few weeks. Production design was done by Mark Digby, and Adam Kimmel was assigned to cinematography. The commercial director was Duncan Reid, who works for Ingenious Media
, and the film was shot by crewmembers of the English company DNA Films. On 8 May 2009, the production moved to Norfolk
for filming. The beach at Holkham
is also featured in the film. Knightley previously shot scenes at nearby Holkham Hall
for her 2008 film The Duchess
. A location on Hill Road In Clevedon
was used, and a shop was converted into a travel agency. They also filmed on the beach and the Victorian pier
in Clevedon. The pier is featured on the film poster and the cover of the rereleased book. A large property on the Bexhill-on-Sea
seafront was used on 12 and 13 May 2009 to act as the exterior for the residence of Madame, where Tommy and Kathy go to apply for a deferral.
Andrew Melville Hall
in the University of St. Andrews was the setting for the Dover Recovery Centre. Nearly thirty film extras
, film producers, and location scouts had to wait several hours for the sun to set so they could film the scenes there. The restaurant scene, which is featured in the trailer and in promotional screenshots, was shot in the Regent Restaurant and Coffee Lounge in Weston-super-Mare
in April 2009. Chiswick Town Hall, a dark building in London, was also used as a shooting location. The scenes where the Hailsham assemblies were held was filmed at a school in Snaresbrook
, called Forest School, in May 2009. Ham House, Richmond, was used for filming the exterior shots of Hailsham School.
Romanek called working with child actors and "knowing that the first act of the film was going to have to be carried by 12-year-olds" almost certainly the most difficult challenge of making the film. He said that most of the rehearsal schedule was focused on helping to ensure that the first act would be good. At rehearsals, the film-maker would have the younger actors observe the older actors practise the first-act scenes. This had a double purpose: the older actors would have a memory of having played those scenes, while the child actors would get a better idea of how a more skilled actor would play their part. Romanek would then mix and match the actors (for example, Mulligan would do a scene with the child playing the younger Tommy). He also had them spend time together doing things like playing and talking. He took them to the school location and let them play games together so they could get a better idea of the layout of the place.
According to Mulligan, a problem during the production was that her role required her to drive: at the time she did not know how to drive or have a driver's licence. She did a two-week intensive course to learn how to work a manual gear change so she could eventually film the driving scenes, but failed the driving test. "I’m really bad at it," she explained. "[I have] no hand and eye coordination." The production team ultimately had to shoot the scene on a private road, where she was allowed to get behind the wheel. The director had a hard time making Knightley look plain in the film. He tells in an interview: "It was difficult. She was eager and happy to do it because the role called for it. But even at her worst, Keira still looks astonishing."
When accessing the very deep emotions called for by her character, Mulligan stated, "I really took my cue from the book". She noted that her role did not require her to have much to say, because Kathy was more of an observer throughout most of the film. She recalled that "every time I was in a scene where I wasn’t quite sure where I was going with it, I would go to the book and read through the lines because she’s unreliable, in that much of the time she’s not being truly honest with herself or the audience.” The young actress said that her friendship with Knightley made their scenes together easier because they would both perceive each other's comments as being helpful and would not feel "insulted or hurt".
. She worked on Never Let Me Gos music for four months. Portman said that because of the film's sad themes, she wanted to "put some hope" and humanity into the music. It was important to her that there be a "real emotional heartbeat in the midst of this story." Believing that a "huge sweeping score" would not have fit Never Let Me Go, she instead worked with a smaller orchestra of no more than 48 players. At the urgent request of the director and the producers, she tried other approaches, such as the use of a child's voice and what was described as a "big finale cue." In the end, they went for a simpler and more subtle approach. Stating that most of the score was written for piano, strings and harp, with solos for violin and cello, she called her score something of a "chamber
piece". "If you use a solo instrument, it's like having a voice," she says. "It highlights the emotion." But, she adds, "the violin is played with virtually no vibrato, because I didn't ever want it to sound sentimental." She notes that "for my own taste, I stay on the side of restraint, because I think it works better in film." Her work on Never Let Me Go earned her a San Diego Film Critics Society
Award for Best Score.
calling the film's three leads "brilliant". Never Let Me Go premiered at the 37th annual Telluride Film Festival
, presented by the National Film Preserve. The festival began on 3 September 2010, running through Labor Day
in a remote Colorado
town. The Hollywood Reporter
observed that the audience "seemed to respond positively to the film's look at what makes us human and what defines a soul." The film was also part of the 35th Toronto International Film Festival
(TIFF) line-up during September 2010, and was screened along with 300 other films. According to Deadline Hollywood, Never Let Me Go was originally expected to have its world premiere at the 2010 Venice Film Festival in September, but Fox replaced it with Black Swan
. They favored the TIFF over Venice, but eventually settled on the Telluride Film Festival.
In the same month, the film was screened during the 2010 Fantastic Fest
in Austin, Texas
. Never Let Me Go opened the 54th London Film Festival on 13 October 2010, the same day as its European release date. Never Let Me Go was the second film based on an Ishiguro novel to open the festival, after Merchant Ivory-Ismail Merchant
's The Remains of the Day
in 1993. Regarding the film's screening at the London Film Festival, Ishiguro said, "It is a fantastic privilege, I feel very lucky. To some extent it is a showcase for British talent and it's a tremendous honour." Describing Never Let Me Go as “accomplished and imaginative,” Sandra Helborn, the London Film Festival Artistic Director
, added that “It combines impeccable film making, outstanding performances and a deeply moving story, and I couldn’t wish for a stronger or more appropriate opening night." That same month it was also screened in competition at Japan's Tokyo International Film Festival
. Six screenings of the film were held in the Little Theatre at Western Michigan University
between 17–19 December 2010.
Never Let Me Go was scheduled for a limited release
for select cities in the United States on 1 October 2010, but the date was later moved up to 15 September. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2011, and in France on 9 February 2011. As a forum of promotion for the film, Mulligan made guest appearances to introduce Never Let Me Go at movie theatre screenings, including at the Landmark Theatres and AMC Loews Lincoln Square. Upon the film's release at the Telluride Film Festival, a writer for the Los Angeles Times
called the film an "Oscar
wild card". He believed its reviews were "likely to be split between those who consider the film a bleak masterpiece and others who find it straining so mightily for aesthetic perfection that it fails to provide a gripping narrative." The Globe and Mail called Never Let Me Go one of 2010's "big noise" films. In the United States, Never Let Me Go was released on DVD
on 1 February 2011. By 6 February, it had sold 44,911 units (amounting to $628,305 in consumer revenue) and was the 17th-best selling DVD for that week. To date, the DVD sales revenue stands at $1,886,997.
, with an additional one hundred-sixty-three theatres added to its theatrical run later on. The film became the number one-screening at these four theatres on its opening day, and grossed slightly over $44,500 from those select screenings. In its opening weekend, the film made over $111,700, averaging $30,250 per theatre, taking 42nd place at the box office
. In its succeeding week, revenues for Never Let Me Go saw an 117% increase, making about $241,000, with an average of nearly $9,500 per theatre. It was the 28th top grossing film at the box office for that week. By its third week of release, the film suffered a revenue decrease to around $188,000, despite being screened at more theatres than the previous week. After one month of release, it pulled in $350,000, increasing nearly 90 percent from its previous weekend.
According to a news piece published by the Los Angeles Times on 21 October, by Never Let Me Gos fifth week of release it had been labeled an "undeniable disappointment" commercially. The publication noted that when its release widened to over 200 theatres the previous weekend its per-theatre average was so low that its distributor
decided to cut its screens in the succeeding weeks. Based on answers from film experts and executives for Fox Searchlight, there were five factors to why the film commercially disappointed: its timing, problems with the novel, mixed reviews, its depressing tones, and its lack of a male audience. In the following weeks Never Let Me Go began to gross under $100,000 per weekend, going on to earn $2.5 million in the US by the second week of December..
In its opening weekend in the United Kingdom, between 11–13 February 2011, it took ninth place at the box office. Playing on 265 screens, it took in an estimated £625,000 (US$1,001,483), which was seen as a disappointment to the British press. In Never Let Me Gos next week, it had a 45% decrease in revenue, taking in about £338,404 (US$546,653). Never Let Me Go has made a total of $9,455,232 worldwide.
reporter declared the film to be "the most haunting film about love and death I've ever seen", and film critic David Gritten of The Daily Telegraph
saluted the film, applauding the production and the performances of its supporting cast. Saul Austerlitz, a correspondent to the Boston Globe, felt that the film struck a "mournful note" and believed that certain images in the film, such as a tree in an empty field, "possess a haunting power directly lifted from the best of Romanek’s video work", while respecting the themes in Ishiguro’s novel.
The Hollywood Reporter writer Jay A. Fernandez said that Never Let Me Go was an engaging film, but he thought that its overall impact was not as emotionally devastating as the book. Cleveland Magazine
s Clint O'Connor strongly approved the acting performance of Garfield, and Eric Kohn from indieWIRE
praised the script and the photography of Kimmel and Garland.
In a short review, Chris Knight of the National Post
wrote that the film was able to capture the wistfulness and the unpredictable tone of Ishiguro’s novel, but added that it "spills the beans much sooner". Mark Jenkins
of NPR
called Never Let Me Go a "remarkably successful adaptation" of Ishiguro's book, but acknowledged that Romanek and Garland "do make a few missteps," which were mostly the result of the limitations of turning the novel's contents into a film. Entertainment Weekly
film critic Owen Gleiberman
described the film as feeling like a "period piece" and rated it a C+. Reuters
s Stephen Farber called the film a disappointment, because although it was "expertly acted, impeccably photographed, intelligently written" and "even intermittently touching," Never Let Me Go is "too parched and ponderous to connect with a large audience". He said the film should have laid out more completely the logic of its parallel universe, such as the cloning process. He found its theme of the dangers of medical experimentation "rather tired".
Slant Magazine
writer Ed Gonzalez gave the film a two out of four star rating, saying that in Never Let Me Go the characters' actions do not feel "appropriately warped" while the interactions between the teachers and students is not "at all rife with the what-are-they-thinking-about-us mystery of the book." Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com
wrote that Romanek "does so many difficult things beautifully in this movie". He thought the film carried a reminder that life is short regardless of how long it lasts rather than a "lecture about the horrors of human history". Tom Preston from The Guardian
described Mulligan and Garfield's acting as solid, while commenting that Knightley's emotional performances are occasionally jarring. He further wrote that although Never Let Me Go finely demonstrated subtlety, its screenplay could have been written with less compression in some parts. Writing in Newsweek
, Louisa Thomas praised the film for its beauty and its performances but declared that "there’s something just missing here."
Marshall Fine
of The Huffington Post
noted that like the novel, the film is difficult to embrace. He said that the film does work on a "suspense level", due to Romanek's creating a "quiet, leisurely pace that would not be out of place in a yoga class". He stated that he "no doubt was aiming for an eerie, Children of the Damned
, vibe, except that it's the children who are damned". The writer concluded that Never Let Me Gos final result is a "staid, lifeless tale that never talks about what it's about, or at least not enough to provoke deep thoughts on the subject." Film critic Rex Roberts of Film Journal International
thought that the film was moderately surprising given Romanek and Garland's previous work, saying that they "show real affinity for the subtle shades of resignation and quiet desperation that characterize Isighuro’s prose and, as would be expected, accentuate the unsettling eeriness that pervades Never Let Me Go." Roberts felt that Mulligan and Knightley were unconvincing in their roles due to the age differences.
The Canadian Presss Christy Lemire
stated that the film was a "gorgeous, provocative look at humanity" and observed that like its characters, the film "demands much of its audiences emotionally." She concluded that Never Let Me Go is worth the investment. The Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan
thought that the film was "passionate about deliberation and restraint" and believed that the latter may not appeal to all audiences. Scott Bowles, writing for USA Today
, gave the film a negative review, declaring "never was a movie so bleak and empty". He claimed that Never Let Me Go did not "embrace the book's unrelentingly dark tones", but rather wallowed in them. He commented that not even the cast's performance, particularly Garfield's, were enough to redeem the film. New York Times journalist Manohla Dargis
said that the film presented "the aspect of a tasteful shocker" because its "cruelty is done so prettily and with such caution that the sting remains light".
Utopian and dystopian fiction
The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
based on Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro OBE or ; born 8 November 1954) is a Japanese–English novelist. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and his family moved to England in 1960. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor's degree from University of Kent in 1978 and his Master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing...
's 2005 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek
Mark Romanek is an American filmmaker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and commercials.He wrote and directed the critically acclaimed 2002 film One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams...
from a screenplay by Alex Garland
Alex Garland
Alexander Medawar "Alex" Garland is a British novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:Garland was born in London, England, the son of psychoanalyst Caroline and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. His maternal grandparents were zoologist Peter Medawar and author Jean Medawar...
. Never Let Me Go is set in an alternate history and centers on Kathy, Ruth and Tommy who are portrayed by Carey Mulligan
Carey Mulligan
Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
, Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley
Keira Christina Knightley born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham...
and Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Russell Garfield is an American-English actor who has appeared in radio, theatre, film, and television. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor".Garfield achieved...
respectively. The three, who become entangled in a love triangle, are scientific specimens
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
created in a laboratory to provide their organs to severely ill patients. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began in April 2009 and lasted several weeks. The movie was filmed at various locations, including Andrew Melville Hall
Andrew Melville Hall
Andrew Melville Hall is a student hall of residence of the University of St Andrews, Scotland.It is named after Andrew Melville, a 16th-century Scottish scholar, theologian and religious reformer who was a graduate of the University, and who later became its rector and dean of...
. Never Let Me Go was produced by DNA Films
DNA Films
DNA Films is a British film production company founded by Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew Macdonald.-Film productions:* Dredd * Never Let Me Go * Shooting Someone...
and Film4
Film4
Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.-Programming:...
on a $15 million budget.
Prior to the book's publication, Garland had approached the film's producers—Andrew Macdonald and Andrew Reich—about a possible film, and wrote a 96-page script. The producers initially had trouble finding an actress to play Kathy; Mulligan was cast in the role after Peter Rice, the head of the company financing the film, recommended her by text message while watching her performance in An Education
An Education
An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film, based on an autobiographical article in Granta by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, and stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David,...
. Mulligan, a fan of the book, enthusiastically accepted the role, as it had long been a wish of hers to have the opportunity to play the part. The film's message and themes were the factors that attracted Garfield to become a part of the film.
Never Let Me Go premiered at the 37th annual Telluride Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
in September 2010, where the audience positively responded to its message. The film was also screened at festivals including the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented Score: A Hockey Musical, a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. Last Night closed the festival on September 19.2010 TIFF included...
, and the 54th London Film Festival (which it opened). The film was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Fox Searchlight Pictures, established in 1998, is a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment alongside the larger Fox studio 20th Century Fox...
to cinemas in the United States on 15 September 2010, where it was given a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
. It opened on 14 January 2011 in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Never Let Me Go opened at four theatres, grossing over $111,000 during its first weekend, eventually growing to $2.5 million. The movie got off to a better start in its first weekend in the UK, earning £625,000 (US$1,009,750) and taking ninth place at the box office.
To date, Never Let Me Go has earned $9.4 million at the box office and an additional $1.8 million in DVD sales revenue. Never Let Me Go was met with generally positive reviews from film critics, with most reviewers praising the cast's overall performances. It was placed on several critics' top ten lists for the year.
Plot
The film begins with on-screen captions explaining that a medical breakthrough in 1952 has permitted the human lifespan to be extended beyond 100 years. Subsequently, the film is narrated by 28-year-old Kathy H (Carey MulliganCarey Mulligan
Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
) as she reminisces about her childhood at a boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
called Hailsham
Hailsham
Hailsham is a civil parish and the largest of the five main towns in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the town of Hailsham has had a long history of industry and agriculture...
, as well as her adult life after leaving the school. The first act of the film depicts the young Kathy, along with her friends Tommy (Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Russell Garfield is an American-English actor who has appeared in radio, theatre, film, and television. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor".Garfield achieved...
) and Ruth (Keira Knightley
Keira Knightley
Keira Christina Knightley born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham...
), spending their childhood at Hailsham in the late 1970s. The school seems to be somewhat unusual. Students are encouraged to create art work such as paintings and poetry instead of science and math normal for school children. And their best work gets into "The Gallery". There is also a strong emphasis on "keeping yourselves healthy inside". At one point, a new teacher, Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins
Sally Hawkins
Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy...
) quietly informs the students of their nature: they exist only for donor organs for transplants, and will die in their late twenties. The following day Miss Lucy is "no longer working at Hailsham". As time passes, Kathy falls in love with Tommy, but Ruth starts a relationship with him. They stay together throughout the rest of their time at Hailsham.
In the second act of the film, the three friends, now young adults, are rehoused in cottages on a farm. They are permitted to leave the grounds if they wish but are resigned to their eventual fate, seeing it as inevitable. At the farm, they meet former pupils of schools similar to theirs. At one point, two of the others take Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth to a nearby town to see if a woman they had previously seen is Ruth's "original", the person she was modeled on. Ruth is very excited at first, but when she sees that the woman doesn't look like her, she gets disappointed and angry, and says they should never have expected they could find her original in a high-class place, because they are all "modeled on trash" and their originals can be found "in the gutter", meaning junkies and prostitutes, "maybe as long as they're not mad".
From the others, Kathy and her friends hear rumors of the possibility of "deferral" – a temporary reprieve from organ donation for clones who are in love and can somehow prove it. Tommy becomes convinced that The Gallery at Hailsham, was intended to look into their souls and that artwork sent to The Gallery will be able to verify true love. The relationship between Tommy and Ruth becomes sexual, and jealousy causes Kathy and Ruth to break their friendship. Kathy, who can no longer put up with loneliness, becomes a "carer" – a clone who is given a temporary reprieve from donation to do the job of supporting and comforting donors as they give up their organs. In time, Tommy and Ruth's relationship ends, though it happens after Kathy has left and is not depicted.
In the third and final act of the film, 10 years later, Kathy is working as a carer. She has watched many clones gradually die as their organs are harvested; their deaths are referred to as "completion". Kathy hasn't seen Ruth or Tommy since the cottages. While working as a carer, Kathy happens to find Ruth who is frail after two donations. They find Tommy, who is also weakened by his donations, and drive to the sea as a short trip. There, Ruth admits that she has always known that Kathy and Tommy were meant to be together because their love for each other was real, whereas Ruth was with Tommy because she was afraid to be alone. She is consumed with guilt and has been searching for a way to help Tommy and Kathy. She has found the address of the gallery owner, Madame from Hailsham, whom she thinks may grant deferrals to couples in love. Ruth dies on the operating table
Operating table
An operating table, sometimes called operating room table, is the table on which the patient lies during a surgical operation. This surgical equipment is usually found inside the surgery room of a hospital. An improvised suitable operating table can be composed of two kitchen tables that are...
shortly afterward.
Tommy explains to Kathy that he has been creating art in the hope that it will convince Madame to give them a deferral. He and Kathy drive to visit Madame, who lives with the headmistress of Hailsham. The two teachers sympathetically tell them that there is no deferral. They also explain that the purpose of The Gallery was to show people that the clones were human and had a soul to maybe challenge the ethics of the creation of donors. Hailsham was, in fact, the last place to consider the ethical implications of the donor program and try to improve conditions for clones. It had closed down owing to lack of funding, because people simply did not want to think about where the transplant organs came from. As they take in the news on their return journey, Tommy breaks down in an explosion of rage and frustration while Kathy resignedly accepts her fate. The film ends with Tommy being anesthetized on the operating table for what would be his last organ donation. Kathy is left alone, knowing that her organ donations will begin in one month. Contemplating the ruins of her childhood, she asks in voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
whether her fate is really any different from the people who will receive her organs: after all, "we all complete" and we all have the feeling we never had enough time.
Cast
- Carey MulliganCarey MulliganCarey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
as Kathy H.- Isobel Meikle-Small as Young Kathy H.
- Keira KnightleyKeira KnightleyKeira Christina Knightley born 26 March 1985) is an English actress and model. She began acting as a child and came to international notice in 2002 after co-starring in the film Bend It Like Beckham...
as Ruth- Ella PurnellElla PurnellElla Purnell is an English child actress who has appeared in several feature films being released in 2010 and 2011.-Life and career:...
as Young Ruth
- Ella Purnell
- Andrew GarfieldAndrew GarfieldAndrew Russell Garfield is an American-English actor who has appeared in radio, theatre, film, and television. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor".Garfield achieved...
as Tommy D.- Charlie RoweCharlie RoweCharlie Rowe is an English child actor, best known for his roles as Young Tommy in Never Let Me Go and as Peter in the upcoming SyFy/Sky Movies Peter Pan prequel Neverland. He also starred as The Prince in The Nutcracker in 3D alongside Elle Fanning and as Billy Costa in The Golden Compass in 2007...
as Young Tommy
- Charlie Rowe
- Sally HawkinsSally HawkinsSally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy...
as Miss Lucy - Charlotte RamplingCharlotte RamplingCharlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
as Miss Emily - Nathalie RichardNathalie RichardNathalie Richard is a French actress.Richard was born in Paris, France. She received the Prix Michel Simon film prize for most promising actress/actor for her role in the 1988 Jacques Rivette film Gang of Four.-Filmography:...
as Madame - Domhnall GleesonDomhnall GleesonDomhnall Gleeson is an Irish actor, director and writer from Dublin. He has acted on both stage and screen, picking up a Tony Award nomination in 2006 for his part in the Broadway production The Lieutenant of Inishmore...
as Rodney - Andrea RiseboroughAndrea Riseborough-Early life:Riseborough grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk To Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites"....
as Chrissie
Themes
Director Mark Romanek has said that, as in the film, everyone has to uncover their relationship to our own mortality; we have two choices: either go against it, or try to figure out a way around it like the character Tommy does. Romanek hoped the audience of Never Let Me Go would be reminded of what is important: love, behavior, and friendships. He recalled an email a person had written to him: “I saw your film and it made me cry and I haven’t reacted to a film emotionally like that in years. And I called my father, cause I realized I hadn’t spoken to him in 3 weeks and I told him how much I love him and how much I appreciated what a good father he’s been.”Andrew Garfield believes the story of Never Let Me Go is about humans, and exploring "what it is to have a soul, and how you prove what a soul is"; he says he enjoys the way the film is a "call to arms" about the positives of life. He adds that its message could hopefully remind people that they have a choice when they arise in the morning whether to pursue their own choice of activities for the day, or to do what they should do or are obligated to do. Keira Knightley feels that the film's story is alarming, but has said that the film is "more about humanity's ability to look the other way". "You know in fact that if your morals can go out the window if you think you can survive in a certain way, whatever your morals may be".
Development
Alex GarlandAlex Garland
Alexander Medawar "Alex" Garland is a British novelist and screenwriter.-Early life:Garland was born in London, England, the son of psychoanalyst Caroline and political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. His maternal grandparents were zoologist Peter Medawar and author Jean Medawar...
, a long-time friend of Ishiguro, asked the author for the rights to the novel before he had finished reading it. Before the novel was published in 2005, Garland had already written a script for a possible film. He gave the screenplay to two producers, Andrew Macdonald
Andrew Macdonald (producer)
Andrew Macdonald is a Scottish film producer, best known for his collaborations with screenwriter John Hodge and director Danny Boyle, including Shallow Grave , Trainspotting and 28 Days Later ....
and Allon Reich, and development started at that moment. "We are delighted to be shooting this special project, which Alex Garland first brought to us before the book's publication in 2005." The script for the film was 96 pages long, done in chapters. Director Mark Romanek was originally attached to The WolfMan
The Wolf Man (2009 film)
The Wolfman is a 2010 American remake of the 1941 classic werewolf horror film of the same name. This film's second half was significantly altered and expanded from the original film's plot. Directed by Joe Johnston, the film stars Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving...
, but when he was dropped from that production for an unknown reason, he accepted the offer to work on Never Let Me Go. The movie was made into a dystopian drama. Romanek was glad to get the opportunity to shoot this film: "From the moment I finished [reading] the novel, it became my dream to film it. Ishiguro's conception is so daring, so eerie and beautiful. Alex Garland's adaptation is sensitive and precise. The cast is perfect, the crew superb." The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
observed that the project was "something of a departure" for the novelist, noting that it merges Ishiguro's signature "elegant prose with a decidedly science-fiction theme".
Garland, who has explored science fiction themes in some of his previous work, was a sounding board for ideas for the novel and an early reader of the book. Ishiguro stated that, despite Garland's screenwriting skills and previous experience with film, they did not discuss the idea of a film until after the novel was complete. "I try not to think about things like that when writing a novel—in fact, quite the reverse," he stated. He said that he attempts to "go for something... very interior, following thoughts and memories, something that I think is difficult to do on the screen, which is essentially a third-person medium." Thus he was surprised when Garland, after reading a complete version of the book, said he would like to try to adapt it. Ishiguro recalled that Garland wrote a draft very quickly and immediately asked of his opinion of it "as a first go". Ishiguro was very satisfied with Garland's screenplay—which was changed very little from its initial draft to the filmed version—and with the final film. When asked to compare the experience with that of The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's third published novel. One of the most highly-regarded post-war British novels, the work was awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1989...
, he acknowledged that both were more hands-on with this film. Romanek said that he did not make Never Let Me Go a science fiction film; rather he was presenting a love story with fictional science context mixed in. He described the film as telling a "love story where the science fiction is this subtle patina on the story." The filmmaker explained that had they done the film with "science fiction-y things", it would have been more openly, with props such as futuristic structures and devices.
Casting
Carey MulliganCarey Mulligan
Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
plays the narrator, Kathy, a passive woman who projects both innocence and knowingness. Prior to her casting, Mulligan had already read the novel a few times, considering it to be a favourite of hers. She recalled that from when she first read the book three years ago she had wanted to play Kathy. The young actress said that she could not "bear the idea of anyone else" portraying Kathy, although she acknowledged that she thought other people would be able to do a better performance. She was certain that someone would make a film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the novel and had hoped that they would wait until she would be old enough to play the character. Romanek told The Los Angeles Times that he originally was having difficultly finding the right actress to play Kathy; a tight filming deadline loomed prior to Mulligan's casting. Peter Rice, the head of Fox Searchlight (the company financing the film) was watching An Education
An Education
An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film, based on an autobiographical article in Granta by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, and stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David,...
at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
in January. He wrote Romanek a four-word text message: "Hire the genius Mulligan." When later asked why the message was so abrupt, he explained that he was still in the middle of viewing the film. Rice exhibited what was described as a "rare foresight" in greenlighting a film with an almost unknown lead actress. "He just knew that she was it," said Romanek.
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield
Andrew Russell Garfield is an American-English actor who has appeared in radio, theatre, film, and television. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor".Garfield achieved...
was given the role of Tommy, a confused boy trying to fit into his imperfect world. He said of his character, "There's a sense of anxiety that runs through these kids, especially Tommy, because he's so sensory and feeling and animalistic, that's my perspective of him." Garfield was attracted to the film based on the existential questions the story expresses. He called the experience of being a part of Never Let Me Go a "dream to come true". Garfield enjoys an opportunity to let loose with his roles. He said the scenes in which his character—unable to contain his frustration—erupts with a wail, was "intense" for him. "I think those screams are inside all of us, I just got a chance to let mine out". Before shooting the film, he had read the screenplay and the book. In March 2009 Daily Variety reported that Knightley was signed to the project. Knightley admitted that she only agreed to appear in Never Let Me Go because co-star and friend Mulligan had asked her to. She portrays Ruth, who Knightley confesses acts manipulatively. When asked what she did and did not have in common with her character, Knightley said she was unable to relate to Ruth's situation of being involved in a love triangle.
The three lead characters do not have last names because "they are not normal people." Romanek believed that the three main characters act with intense dignity. He noted that they are not materialistic or looking for power, but just desire to acknowledge their love for each other and stay close in their friendship. An example he mentioned was how Ruth tries to seek redemption by attempting to set right a big mistake she'd made. What he found the most moving aspect of the film was the "graceful place of acceptance that Kathy comes to at the end." Child actors Isobel Meikle-Small, Ella Purnell
Ella Purnell
Ella Purnell is an English child actress who has appeared in several feature films being released in 2010 and 2011.-Life and career:...
, and Charlie Rowe
Charlie Rowe
Charlie Rowe is an English child actor, best known for his roles as Young Tommy in Never Let Me Go and as Peter in the upcoming SyFy/Sky Movies Peter Pan prequel Neverland. He also starred as The Prince in The Nutcracker in 3D alongside Elle Fanning and as Billy Costa in The Golden Compass in 2007...
play the younger versions of Never Let Me Gos three lead actors. Hawkins, who co-starred with Mulligan in An Education, had a supporting role as Miss Lucy, who is a teacher at an isolated English boarding school where the students slowly become aware of the fact that they are feared by people in the outside world. Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling
Charlotte Rampling, OBE is an English actress. Her career spans four decades in English-language as well as French and Italian cinema.- Early life :...
portrays Miss Emily, a schoolmaster who presides over the orphanage at Hailsham. Richard was cast as an administrator, who is known as Madame. The character has been conducting an ongoing project that aims to analyse the students’ characters and psychologies, which has been compared to treating them as if they were subjects in an experiment. Riseborough's casting in Never Let Me Go was announced in April 2009 by Screen Daily; she had a small role in the film.
Filming
Never Let Me Go was given a production budget of US$15 million. Principal photographyPrincipal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
for the film started in April 2009 and lasted a few weeks. Production design was done by Mark Digby, and Adam Kimmel was assigned to cinematography. The commercial director was Duncan Reid, who works for Ingenious Media
Ingenious Media
Ingenious Media is a UK media investment and advisory group founded in 1998 by Patrick McKenna who is its Chief Executive Officer....
, and the film was shot by crewmembers of the English company DNA Films. On 8 May 2009, the production moved to Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
for filming. The beach at Holkham
Holkham
Holkham is a village and civil parish in the north-west of the county of Norfolk, England. Besides the small village, the parish includes the major stately home and estate of Holkham Hall, and an attractive beach at Holkham Gap...
is also featured in the film. Knightley previously shot scenes at nearby Holkham Hall
Holkham Hall
Holkham Hall is an eighteenth-century country house located adjacent to the village of Holkham, on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk...
for her 2008 film The Duchess
The Duchess (film)
The Duchess is a 2008 British drama film based on Amanda Foreman's biography of the 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. It was released in September 2008 in the UK...
. A location on Hill Road In Clevedon
Clevedon
Clevedon is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, England...
was used, and a shop was converted into a travel agency. They also filmed on the beach and the Victorian pier
Clevedon Pier
Clevedon Pier is a seaside pier in the town of Clevedon, on the English side of the Severn Estuary. It is situated next to the Royal Pier Hotel....
in Clevedon. The pier is featured on the film poster and the cover of the rereleased book. A large property on the Bexhill-on-Sea
Bexhill-on-Sea
Bexhill-on-Sea is a town and seaside resort in the county of East Sussex, in the south of England, within the District of Rother. It has a population of approximately 40,000...
seafront was used on 12 and 13 May 2009 to act as the exterior for the residence of Madame, where Tommy and Kathy go to apply for a deferral.
Andrew Melville Hall
Andrew Melville Hall
Andrew Melville Hall is a student hall of residence of the University of St Andrews, Scotland.It is named after Andrew Melville, a 16th-century Scottish scholar, theologian and religious reformer who was a graduate of the University, and who later became its rector and dean of...
in the University of St. Andrews was the setting for the Dover Recovery Centre. Nearly thirty film extras
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
, film producers, and location scouts had to wait several hours for the sun to set so they could film the scenes there. The restaurant scene, which is featured in the trailer and in promotional screenshots, was shot in the Regent Restaurant and Coffee Lounge in Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
in April 2009. Chiswick Town Hall, a dark building in London, was also used as a shooting location. The scenes where the Hailsham assemblies were held was filmed at a school in Snaresbrook
Snaresbrook
Snaresbrook is an area of north-east London, mostly in the London Borough of Redbridge. A small part falls within the London Borough of Waltham Forest...
, called Forest School, in May 2009. Ham House, Richmond, was used for filming the exterior shots of Hailsham School.
Romanek called working with child actors and "knowing that the first act of the film was going to have to be carried by 12-year-olds" almost certainly the most difficult challenge of making the film. He said that most of the rehearsal schedule was focused on helping to ensure that the first act would be good. At rehearsals, the film-maker would have the younger actors observe the older actors practise the first-act scenes. This had a double purpose: the older actors would have a memory of having played those scenes, while the child actors would get a better idea of how a more skilled actor would play their part. Romanek would then mix and match the actors (for example, Mulligan would do a scene with the child playing the younger Tommy). He also had them spend time together doing things like playing and talking. He took them to the school location and let them play games together so they could get a better idea of the layout of the place.
According to Mulligan, a problem during the production was that her role required her to drive: at the time she did not know how to drive or have a driver's licence. She did a two-week intensive course to learn how to work a manual gear change so she could eventually film the driving scenes, but failed the driving test. "I’m really bad at it," she explained. "[I have] no hand and eye coordination." The production team ultimately had to shoot the scene on a private road, where she was allowed to get behind the wheel. The director had a hard time making Knightley look plain in the film. He tells in an interview: "It was difficult. She was eager and happy to do it because the role called for it. But even at her worst, Keira still looks astonishing."
When accessing the very deep emotions called for by her character, Mulligan stated, "I really took my cue from the book". She noted that her role did not require her to have much to say, because Kathy was more of an observer throughout most of the film. She recalled that "every time I was in a scene where I wasn’t quite sure where I was going with it, I would go to the book and read through the lines because she’s unreliable, in that much of the time she’s not being truly honest with herself or the audience.” The young actress said that her friendship with Knightley made their scenes together easier because they would both perceive each other's comments as being helpful and would not feel "insulted or hurt".
Music
Never Let Me Gos score was done by British composer Rachel PortmanRachel Portman
Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman, OBE is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score...
. She worked on Never Let Me Gos music for four months. Portman said that because of the film's sad themes, she wanted to "put some hope" and humanity into the music. It was important to her that there be a "real emotional heartbeat in the midst of this story." Believing that a "huge sweeping score" would not have fit Never Let Me Go, she instead worked with a smaller orchestra of no more than 48 players. At the urgent request of the director and the producers, she tried other approaches, such as the use of a child's voice and what was described as a "big finale cue." In the end, they went for a simpler and more subtle approach. Stating that most of the score was written for piano, strings and harp, with solos for violin and cello, she called her score something of a "chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
piece". "If you use a solo instrument, it's like having a voice," she says. "It highlights the emotion." But, she adds, "the violin is played with virtually no vibrato, because I didn't ever want it to sound sentimental." She notes that "for my own taste, I stay on the side of restraint, because I think it works better in film." Her work on Never Let Me Go earned her a San Diego Film Critics Society
San Diego Film Critics Society
The San Diego Film Critics Society is an organization of film reviewers from San Diego-based publications.Each year the SDFCS meets to vote on their San Diego Film Critics Society Awards for films released in the same calendar year....
Award for Best Score.
Promotion and release
In July 2010 Never Let Me Go was screened to film critics, who gave it generally positive reviews, with The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
calling the film's three leads "brilliant". Never Let Me Go premiered at the 37th annual Telluride Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
, presented by the National Film Preserve. The festival began on 3 September 2010, running through Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
in a remote Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
town. The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
observed that the audience "seemed to respond positively to the film's look at what makes us human and what defines a soul." The film was also part of the 35th Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
(TIFF) line-up during September 2010, and was screened along with 300 other films. According to Deadline Hollywood, Never Let Me Go was originally expected to have its world premiere at the 2010 Venice Film Festival in September, but Fox replaced it with Black Swan
Black Swan (film)
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to...
. They favored the TIFF over Venice, but eventually settled on the Telluride Film Festival.
In the same month, the film was screened during the 2010 Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of The Iron Giant and Secondhand Lions. The festival focuses on genre films such as horror,...
in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. Never Let Me Go opened the 54th London Film Festival on 13 October 2010, the same day as its European release date. Never Let Me Go was the second film based on an Ishiguro novel to open the festival, after Merchant Ivory-Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
's The Remains of the Day
The Remains of the Day (film)
The Remains of the Day is a 1993 Merchant Ivory film adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant, Mike Nichols and John Calley. It starred Anthony Hopkins as Stevens and Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton with James Fox,...
in 1993. Regarding the film's screening at the London Film Festival, Ishiguro said, "It is a fantastic privilege, I feel very lucky. To some extent it is a showcase for British talent and it's a tremendous honour." Describing Never Let Me Go as “accomplished and imaginative,” Sandra Helborn, the London Film Festival Artistic Director
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
, added that “It combines impeccable film making, outstanding performances and a deeply moving story, and I couldn’t wish for a stronger or more appropriate opening night." That same month it was also screened in competition at Japan's Tokyo International Film Festival
Tokyo International Film Festival
Tokyo International Film Festival is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biannually from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter...
. Six screenings of the film were held in the Little Theatre at Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....
between 17–19 December 2010.
Never Let Me Go was scheduled for a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
for select cities in the United States on 1 October 2010, but the date was later moved up to 15 September. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2011, and in France on 9 February 2011. As a forum of promotion for the film, Mulligan made guest appearances to introduce Never Let Me Go at movie theatre screenings, including at the Landmark Theatres and AMC Loews Lincoln Square. Upon the film's release at the Telluride Film Festival, a writer for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
called the film an "Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
wild card". He believed its reviews were "likely to be split between those who consider the film a bleak masterpiece and others who find it straining so mightily for aesthetic perfection that it fails to provide a gripping narrative." The Globe and Mail called Never Let Me Go one of 2010's "big noise" films. In the United States, Never Let Me Go was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on 1 February 2011. By 6 February, it had sold 44,911 units (amounting to $628,305 in consumer revenue) and was the 17th-best selling DVD for that week. To date, the DVD sales revenue stands at $1,886,997.
Box office
Never Let Me Go was released to four movie theaters in its opening weekend in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with an additional one hundred-sixty-three theatres added to its theatrical run later on. The film became the number one-screening at these four theatres on its opening day, and grossed slightly over $44,500 from those select screenings. In its opening weekend, the film made over $111,700, averaging $30,250 per theatre, taking 42nd place at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
. In its succeeding week, revenues for Never Let Me Go saw an 117% increase, making about $241,000, with an average of nearly $9,500 per theatre. It was the 28th top grossing film at the box office for that week. By its third week of release, the film suffered a revenue decrease to around $188,000, despite being screened at more theatres than the previous week. After one month of release, it pulled in $350,000, increasing nearly 90 percent from its previous weekend.
According to a news piece published by the Los Angeles Times on 21 October, by Never Let Me Gos fifth week of release it had been labeled an "undeniable disappointment" commercially. The publication noted that when its release widened to over 200 theatres the previous weekend its per-theatre average was so low that its distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
decided to cut its screens in the succeeding weeks. Based on answers from film experts and executives for Fox Searchlight, there were five factors to why the film commercially disappointed: its timing, problems with the novel, mixed reviews, its depressing tones, and its lack of a male audience. In the following weeks Never Let Me Go began to gross under $100,000 per weekend, going on to earn $2.5 million in the US by the second week of December..
In its opening weekend in the United Kingdom, between 11–13 February 2011, it took ninth place at the box office. Playing on 265 screens, it took in an estimated £625,000 (US$1,001,483), which was seen as a disappointment to the British press. In Never Let Me Gos next week, it had a 45% decrease in revenue, taking in about £338,404 (US$546,653). Never Let Me Go has made a total of $9,455,232 worldwide.
Critical reception
Never Let Me Go has received generally positive reviews from critics, with the cast's performances being praised. The film's overall result has been viewed as a disappointment by some reviewers when compared to the novel. A Daily MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
reporter declared the film to be "the most haunting film about love and death I've ever seen", and film critic David Gritten of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
saluted the film, applauding the production and the performances of its supporting cast. Saul Austerlitz, a correspondent to the Boston Globe, felt that the film struck a "mournful note" and believed that certain images in the film, such as a tree in an empty field, "possess a haunting power directly lifted from the best of Romanek’s video work", while respecting the themes in Ishiguro’s novel.
The Hollywood Reporter writer Jay A. Fernandez said that Never Let Me Go was an engaging film, but he thought that its overall impact was not as emotionally devastating as the book. Cleveland Magazine
Cleveland Magazine
Cleveland Magazine is the largest monthly magazine focused on Northeastern Ohio, with a circulation of 45,000. It was founded in 1972. The inaugural April 1972 issue featured a young Dennis Kucinich, a frequent profile subject of the magazine...
s Clint O'Connor strongly approved the acting performance of Garfield, and Eric Kohn from indieWIRE
IndieWire
indieWIRE is a daily news site for the independent film community. It covers indie, documentary and foreign language films, as well industry news, film festival reports, filmmaker interviews and movie reviews...
praised the script and the photography of Kimmel and Garland.
In a short review, Chris Knight of the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
wrote that the film was able to capture the wistfulness and the unpredictable tone of Ishiguro’s novel, but added that it "spills the beans much sooner". Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins is an American artist most widely known for the street installations he creates using box sealing tape. In addition to creating art, he also teaches his sculpture techniques through workshops in cities he visits...
of NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
called Never Let Me Go a "remarkably successful adaptation" of Ishiguro's book, but acknowledged that Romanek and Garland "do make a few missteps," which were mostly the result of the limitations of turning the novel's contents into a film. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
film critic Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
described the film as feeling like a "period piece" and rated it a C+. Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
s Stephen Farber called the film a disappointment, because although it was "expertly acted, impeccably photographed, intelligently written" and "even intermittently touching," Never Let Me Go is "too parched and ponderous to connect with a large audience". He said the film should have laid out more completely the logic of its parallel universe, such as the cloning process. He found its theme of the dangers of medical experimentation "rather tired".
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine is an online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York Film Festival.- History :...
writer Ed Gonzalez gave the film a two out of four star rating, saying that in Never Let Me Go the characters' actions do not feel "appropriately warped" while the interactions between the teachers and students is not "at all rife with the what-are-they-thinking-about-us mystery of the book." Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
wrote that Romanek "does so many difficult things beautifully in this movie". He thought the film carried a reminder that life is short regardless of how long it lasts rather than a "lecture about the horrors of human history". Tom Preston from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described Mulligan and Garfield's acting as solid, while commenting that Knightley's emotional performances are occasionally jarring. He further wrote that although Never Let Me Go finely demonstrated subtlety, its screenplay could have been written with less compression in some parts. Writing in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, Louisa Thomas praised the film for its beauty and its performances but declared that "there’s something just missing here."
Marshall Fine
Marshall Fine
Marshall Fine Author, Journalist, and movie critic. Marshall Fine is a film critic and author who has worked at newspapers in Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, California and New York. Fine spent 25 years covering film for Gannett Newspapers. More recently, he has served as film/TV...
of The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
noted that like the novel, the film is difficult to embrace. He said that the film does work on a "suspense level", due to Romanek's creating a "quiet, leisurely pace that would not be out of place in a yoga class". He stated that he "no doubt was aiming for an eerie, Children of the Damned
Children of the Damned
Children of the Damned is a 1963 science fiction film, a thematic sequel to the 1960 version of Village of the Damned. It is about a group of children, with similar psi-powers to the original seeding, but without the obvious 'alien' differences in the earlier film.-Plot:Six children are identified...
, vibe, except that it's the children who are damned". The writer concluded that Never Let Me Gos final result is a "staid, lifeless tale that never talks about what it's about, or at least not enough to provoke deep thoughts on the subject." Film critic Rex Roberts of Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
thought that the film was moderately surprising given Romanek and Garland's previous work, saying that they "show real affinity for the subtle shades of resignation and quiet desperation that characterize Isighuro’s prose and, as would be expected, accentuate the unsettling eeriness that pervades Never Let Me Go." Roberts felt that Mulligan and Knightley were unconvincing in their roles due to the age differences.
The Canadian Presss Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire is the film critic for The Associated Press and co-host of Ebert Presents at the Movies with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. She also co-hosts the weekly online movie review show, What The Flick?!....
stated that the film was a "gorgeous, provocative look at humanity" and observed that like its characters, the film "demands much of its audiences emotionally." She concluded that Never Let Me Go is worth the investment. The Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
thought that the film was "passionate about deliberation and restraint" and believed that the latter may not appeal to all audiences. Scott Bowles, writing for USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, gave the film a negative review, declaring "never was a movie so bleak and empty". He claimed that Never Let Me Go did not "embrace the book's unrelentingly dark tones", but rather wallowed in them. He commented that not even the cast's performance, particularly Garfield's, were enough to redeem the film. New York Times journalist Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
said that the film presented "the aspect of a tasteful shocker" because its "cruelty is done so prettily and with such caution that the sting remains light".
Top ten lists
The film has appeared on the following critics' top ten lists for the best films of 2010:| Critic | Publication | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Adam Kempenaar | Filmspotting Filmspotting Filmspotting is a weekly film podcast and radio program from Chicago hosted by Adam Kempenaar. The show originally began as a progression from Kempenaar's film blog Cinemascoped. He and his friend, Sam Van Hallgren , who had become a regular contributor to Cinemascoped began brainstorming when... |
1st |
| David Poland | Movie City News | 1st |
| Tim Miller | Cape Cod Times Cape Cod Times The Cape Cod Times is a broadsheet daily newspaper serving Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by the Dow Jones Local Media Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is also the sister paper of the weekly The Barnstable Patriot.-History:The paper... |
2nd |
| Laron Chapman | The Oklahoma Daily The Oklahoma Daily The Oklahoma Daily is the student-run newspaper at the University of Oklahoma. Though it maintains its connections with OU's Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the newspaper is not a part of required learning for journalism students at OU, but some classes are offered at The... |
2nd |
| Michael Atkinson | The Village Voice The Village Voice The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City... |
3rd |
| Richard Corliss Richard Corliss Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment... |
Time magazine Time (magazine) Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong... |
3rd |
| Julie Crawford | The Vancouver Courier | 4th |
| David Germain | Associated Press Associated Press The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists... |
5th |
| Christy Lemire Christy Lemire Christy Lemire is the film critic for The Associated Press and co-host of Ebert Presents at the Movies with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. She also co-hosts the weekly online movie review show, What The Flick?!.... |
Associated Press | 7th |
| Calvin Wilson | St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis Post-Dispatch The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as... |
7th |
| Joe Neumaier | New York Daily News New York Daily News The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011.... |
8th |
| Steven Rea Steven Rea Steven Rea is an American journalist, film critic, poet, and writer. Although at the beginning of his career he was based in Los Angeles, California, he now resides on the East Coast. Since 1982 he has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer... |
The Philadelphia Inquirer The Philadelphia Inquirer The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the... |
N/A |
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists Alliance of Women Film Journalists The Alliance of Women Film Journalists is a group of female journalists based out of New York, United States that was founded in 2006. The AWFJ is composed of 45 professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, dedicated to supporting... |
10 January 2011 | Most Beautiful Film | Never Let Me Go | |
| British Independent Film Awards British Independent Film Awards The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British... |
5 December 2010 | Best British Independent Film | Never Let Me Go | |
| Best Director | Mark Romanek | |||
| Best Screenplay | Alex Garland | |||
| Best Actress | Carey Mulligan | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Andrew Garfield | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Keira Knightley | |||
| Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards | 6 January 2011 | Best Score | Rachel Portman | |
| Detroit Film Critics Society Detroit Film Critics Society The Detroit Film Critics Society is a film critic organization in Detroit, Michigan, United States.-2007 Awards:The nominees for the Detroit Film Critics Society Awards 2007 were announced on 15 December and the winners were announced on 21 December 2007.-Best Actor:**George Clooney - Michael... |
16 December 2010 | Best Actress | Carey Mulligan | |
| Breakthrough Performance (Also for The Social Network The Social Network The Social Network is a 2010 American drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires, the film portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits... ) |
Andrew Garfield | |||
| Evening Standard British Film Awards Evening Standard British Film Awards The Evening Standard British Film Awards were established in 1973 by the British London area evening newspaper Evening Standard. The Standard Awards is the only ceremony "dedicated to British and Irish talent," judged by a panel of "top UK critics." Each ceremony honours films from the previous... |
7 February 2011 | Best Actor (Also for The Social Network) |
Andrew Garfield | |
| Best Screenplay | Alex Garland | |||
| Hollywood Film Festival Hollywood Film Festival The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington.... |
25 October 2010 | Hollywood Film Festival for Best Breakthrough Performance Hollywood Film Festival The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington.... (Also for The Social Network) |
Andrew Garfield | |
| Independent Spirit Awards Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit... |
26 February 2011 | Best Cinematography | Adam Kimmel | |
| Indiana Film Critics Association Awards Indiana Film Critics Association The Indiana Film Journalists Association, also known as IFJA, is a film critic organization located in the state of Indiana in The United States. It was founded in early 2009 with six members, and has since doubled in size.... |
12 December 2010 | Best Film | Never Let Me Go | |
| London Film Critics' Circle | 10 February 2011 | British Actor of the Year | Andrew Garfield | |
| Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January... |
8 January 2011 | Breakthrough Performance Award (Also for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) |
Carey Mulligan | |
| Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards | 28 December 2010 | Top Ten Films and Best Picture | Never Let Me Go | |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role | Carey Mulligan | |||
| Best Screenplay, Adapted from Another Medium | Never Let Me Go | |||
| Breakthrough Behind the Camera | Mark Romanek | |||
| Overlooked Film | Never Let Me Go | |||
| Saturn Award Saturn Award The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within... s |
23 June 2011 | Best Science Fiction Film | Never Let Me Go | |
| Best Actress | Carey Mulligan | |||
| Best Supporting Actor | Andrew Garfield | |||
| Best Supporting Actress | Keira Knightley | |||
| Best Writing | Alex Garland | |||
| San Diego Film Critics Society San Diego Film Critics Society The San Diego Film Critics Society is an organization of film reviewers from San Diego-based publications.Each year the SDFCS meets to vote on their San Diego Film Critics Society Awards for films released in the same calendar year.... |
14 December 2010 | Best Actress | Carey Mulligan | |
| Best Score | Rachel Portman | |||
| Women in Film and Television Awards | 3 December 2010 | Best Performance (Also for An Education An Education An Education is a 2009 British coming-of-age drama film, based on an autobiographical article in Granta by British journalist Lynn Barber. The film was directed by Lone Scherfig from a screenplay by Nick Hornby, and stars Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a bright schoolgirl, and Peter Sarsgaard as David,... ) |
Carey Mulligan |