There have been tragic love stories before -- too many, the cynic and the cold-hearted could argue -- but few quite like "Never Let Me Go, " a melancholy but moving tale stocked with meaning and built around an intriguingly bold, genre-defying premise.
It is a period piece, it is a sci-fi drama, it is a romance. There even is a dash of horror in there. It's an unlikely mÃ©lange, but it combines for something both refreshingly original and quietly affecting.
Director Mark Romanek's movie (based on the celebrated novel by Kazuo Ishiguro) is one in which much of the drama is derived from the suspense -- and in which much of the suspense is derived from a key plot point, so I'll keep my summary vague and, thus, spoiler-free.
That might make it sound as if the movie hinges on a single gimmick, and for a lesser production that might have been the case. But "Never Let Me Go" is bolstered by such beautiful performances and lyrical visuals that it rises above that one-trick-pony potential to deliver a universally meaningful message.
That message: Enjoy it, brother. Enjoy it while you can.
Although Romanek's film is built around a sci-fi core, it's not set in some dystopian, "Blade Runner"-style future. Rather, it all takes place in a world that looks and feels a whole lot like ours. Specifically, it plays out at Hailsham, an English boarding school with a student body made up of polite, uniform-wearing, 10-year-old cherubs.
The faculty, though, is something else. They're a quietly menacing group -- not mean, exactly, but faintly Nazi-like.
"You poor creatures. I wish I could help you, " a faculty member earnestly tells two former students at one point, a word choice steeped in subtext about where she ranks them on her own personal evolutionary scale.
The children of Hailsham, it turns out, are being raised for a "special" purpose, although it's not immediately clear what that purpose is. That's by design. This is a movie filled with tender moments and heartbreaking moments, but it also is one filled with suspense and macabre revelations.
At the center of it all are two Hailsham classmates, Kathy and Ruth, both of whom are vying for the attention and affection of a third classmate, Tommy. As they grow older -- and as they learn their "special purpose" -- the three (played as adults by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield) struggle to accept their fates and their romantic entanglements.
Along the way, there are occasional missteps that distract from the story. Chiefly: Why do the students accept their fates so stoically? Why not flee? Maybe some unspecified security mechanism is at work (something beyond the brainwashing that kept them in line as kids), but nothing so apparent as to keep such questions from at times shattering the illusion.
Impatient moviegoers also might be distracted by their own hunt for meaning in the film, meaning that remains obscure for much of the running time. Then, in the final minutes, that meaning comes crashing down like a ton of bricks.
"Never Let Me Go" isn't the kind of movie you talk about on the drive home -- it's even better. It's the kind that makes you sit quietly and think, rolling it around in your head and considering the angles.
It's that affecting, that touching, and that hard to let go of.
NEVER LET ME GO
3 stars, out of 4
Snapshot: A period drama, with sci-fi underpinnings, about three friends at an English boarding school that raises children for a single "special" purpose. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
What works: Great performances and a gentle direction help it rise above what easily could have been a gimmick-driven film.
What doesn't: Certain unexplained plot points present nagging questions that distract from the story.
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Charlotte Rampling, Sally Hawkins. Director: Mark Romanek. Rating: R, for some sexuality and nudity. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. Where: See showtimes.