"These two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. "

I celebrated finishing Kazou Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" by watching the 2010 film. I'm gonna go ahead and state the obvious, the book is better. It isn't so much better that I sat in face palm for the entire 103 minutes. I felt instead like the film did a good job of capturing the "essence" of the novel while at the same time highlighting some of my favorite moments and scenes. My main complaint would be that the film plods along a little quickly, whereas the book moves slower, revealing the nuances of the plot slowly rather than dropping them mid gait. It's hard to sell someone on this film or book without giving too much away but I'm going to try.

It's a story told by Kathy H. about growing up at Hailsham with Tommy and Ruth. Hailsham is a school and residence for very special students. Essentially Hailsham prepares their students for their future. When the students leave Hailsham as young adults, they become carers before becoming donors. Carers are a sort of care-aid for the donors, and the donors essentially exist for the purpose of periodic organ harvesting for the remainder of their short lives. This bleak fate is not the forefront of the novel or film, its the complicated relationship between Kathy, Ruth and Tommy. The bonds, love etc between these three childhood friends becomes the sacrifice on behalf of medical progress rather than their actual physical bodies. The limited time in which the characters actually have to live is frustrating and heartbreaking, more heartbreaking is the time within that limited frame that they manage to waste and loose. Essentially the film and the book will break your heart, and despite the whole distopian aspect of the plot, it actually feels entirely too close to the finality, truth and reality of life.