Never Let Me Go

Needless to say, I had high expectations of this film. Though I'm not a hardcore Ishiguro fan, I liked Never Let Me Go a lot, and I still remember that after finishing it, my heart was oh so sad, but it's a really good read.

The film's okay, but like so many film adaptations of great books, it's bound to be a bit disappointing. (I actually don't remember much about the film version of Atonement...but the book itself's really great too and I can't imagine the film being better) The Ruth character is a bit more evil than I remember in the book, but Kathy played by Carey Mulligan is good throughout - I particularly like the child Kathy, who's very good in my opinion, and her expressions are eerily similar to the older Kathy! I think the child Kathy's actually better than Mulligan's grown-up Kathy... her emotional scenes are very powerful, especially the one scene in which she listens to the song 'Never let me go', a song in the cassette given to her by Tommy, and she's totally immersed in her own world...very powerfully done, you can almost imagine that carnal desire that she expresses later, but that's in a little girl!

S said he can't understand why Ruth apologises for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart. His reasoning is that, though Ruth deliberately 'seduces' Tommy, it's not like he doesn't have a choice, as he can decide whether he likes Kathy or Ruth. Well...let's just say he's a very weak character who doesn't quite know what he wants then. :P He doesn't seem to be a particularly interesting character to me anyway.

For the book's fans, I suppose the film's still a must-see...just don't set your expectations too high!



* Free programme picked up at the cinema...nice touch! Bet Ant will be interested in having one!