Our friend Joan Frawley Desmond has reviewed the new movie Never Let Me Go on the Catholic site Headline Bistro.
Written by Kazuo Ishiguro — the British writer that earned global fame with The Remains of the Day, a riveting story of a class-bound butler in pre-war England — Never Let Me Go isn’t fizzy “date night” material. Rather it goes to the very heart of what it means to be human: the search for our origins, the bonds of love and duty, the struggle to determine our earthly purpose. Such themes rarely surface in contemporary films, but they are treated here with a remarkable depth likely to threaten the complacency of reproductive technology’s most fervent cheerleaders.
A warning: The review doesn’t give away the main point of the book and movie, but it does give away more than some of you will want to know. I read the book not knowing anything about it and found the “reveal” both surprising and powerful. It’s a book I’d highly recommend: one of those, like the similar Children of Men, that says more than the story seems to.
October 2nd, 2010 | 9:32 am
I haven’t seen the movie but second the recommendation for the novel. It is one of the most interesting, moving, and thought-provoking books I’ve read in many years. It isn’t long, and is a story told simply and elegantly. It fell like a pebble in my mind and the ripples of meaning and implication continued for weeks afterward. It is a marvel of subtlety, with most of its major revelations tucked in between the lines. I’m looking forward to seeing the movie, and I’m pleased that most reviewers feel it does justice to its source.