Scene of the Week: Never Let Me Go

directed by Kazuo Ishiguro

"We are modeled on trash"

The scene: After hearing that the original she is modeled after is in the city Ruth goes there to find out for herself. The woman turns out not to be the person she was copied from and Ruth unloads her frustration on Tommy and Kathy, yelling that they are modeled on the trash of society not someone like that woman, who was obviously wealthy and elegant. The scene shows, as in many sci-fi movies about clones, the desire to meet the original and maybe being granted a miracle of longer life. But in "Never let me go" nothing is easy, just like in real life.

Never let me go

(103 min, 2010)
Director: Mark Romanek
Writers: Kazuo Ishiguro (novel), Alex Garland (screenplay)
Stars: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield  

(spoilers)

Unseen tides keep us apart.

“Never let me go
Love me much too much
If you let me go
Life will loseits touch
What woul I be without you?
There's no place for me without you
- Jane Monheit, Never let me go

As children, Ruth (Keira Knightley), Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield), spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.

That reality is reveled to them when they are kids by their teacher miss Lucy (Sally Hawkings in brief but powerful appearance). They are clones and when they grow up their organs will be harvested to save lives of the people from “the outside world”.These kids have been bred to save lives, kept apart from the society and they were already told certain things about their fates. The only life they know is what was presented to them, contained, orchestrated, carefully planned. Their organs will not be harvested all at once, but in stages. They will be kept alive, until most vital organs are taken in the stage called “completion” after which their short life will end.