Never Let Me Go (2010)
Dir. Mark Romanek
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley
The screenwriter of this film adaptation also wrote the screenplay for Dredd (2009), a movie that I rather liked. While both of these films can be classified as sci-fi, there's nothing similar about them at all. If I didn't already know the two shared a screenwriter, I would never have guessed. Then again, the source material (Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and the 2000 AD comic series) are incredibly dissimilar, so naturally you'd expect the films to turn out differently as well. Unsurprisingly I like Dredd quite a bit more, but there was plenty I did like about Never Let Me Go as well.
Despite not caring for Keira Knightley in general, I think this is easily the best performance I've seen from her. I always thought she had this snobbish, cruel look to her, and seeing her play a character that does in fact embody those things, yet is just hiding insecurity and does have some sincerity really worked for me. Garfield is really awkward, but I think that was intentional for his character, and luckily he doesn't have that much dialogue anyway.
Like Camo, I couldn't get into the whole love triangle story, which is a shame because it really is the focus of much of the story. I just don't get why one person would settle for someone else, when they clearly love this other person. I know it happens in real life, and it happens in film all the time, but it's just something I never understand. As such, I'm not particularly harsh on films that do involve said types of relationships, because those stories definitely have an audience to which they appeal.
I did rather like the other parts of the film, since the themes of death, love, and the human soul it portrayed are all very interesting to me. It makes me wonder if they were explored more thoroughly in the novel, a fact I might decide to check out first hand.