Love in the time of clones and sci-fi movies

My most vivid memory of a film about clones and their humanity was The Island, a characteristically bombastic Michael Bay flick that bypassed the moral and social depths in lieu of massive explosions. Smart in its premise, the film collapsed under the need to blow stuff up. Thankfully, director Mark Romanek of Never Let Me Go chooses to bypass even the kinetic freshness of his former music video work to offer us this quiet, reserved, and deliberate piece of work. Never Let Me Go, based on the spellbinding and heartbreaking novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, tells the story of three clones in what is essentially a love triangle (take note, ladies who want to drag their boyfriends to this movie – yeah it’s a love story, but you can always say it’s got a good shot of sci-fi). But unlike Hollywood’s regular offering of chase scenes, gadgets, and fast-moving plots (which I am not complaining about, I love a good sci-fi actioner) Never Let Me Go settles into a tone of calmness broken only by the emotional tremors from the main characters. It’s because this film isn’t about clones (or replicants, or robots) realizing that they have to bring down a system. It’s not about a revolution. Rather, it focuses on their humanity, as reflected in how they feel and express love.

I know that last sentence sounds gooey and gushy, and in writing it as such, I fear that I may be doing the film a disservice. Yet it’s true: the movie, though about clones, and in its deeper readings reveals much questioning of humanity and morality, is primarily about love. The characters try to prove their love through the creation of art, through physical displays, and through the care that each clone gives the other. Carey Mulligan’s Kath, the film’s narrator, becomes a carer or someone who takes care of others before she herself starts making her organ donations. Essentially, she cares for the two other main characters, Andrew Garfield’s Tommy and Keira Knightley’s Ruth. While Ruth plays foil to the kind Kath, she never goes so far as to make us hate her. The depths of their relationship and the way that it swings back and forth from fast friendship to contempt make for much of the film’s tension. Particularly noteworthy is Garfield’s performance. He injects a spring into Tommy’s step, bringing much life to the character. Those familiar with the book would know how difficult a character Tommy is to interpret, and yet Garfield pulls this off, making Tommy believable and at the same time pitiable and sympathetic. Inevitably, there’s a lot lost in translation from book to film. Fans of the book will find the slashing to be substantial. Yet, Alex Garland’s script and Mark Romanek’s directing get the tone and sentiment right on the money. There’s much care given here in telling these characters’ stories properly. More importantly, the care is seemingly effortless, as if things are always meant to be this way, as if we are meant to merely accept these things as they are. Powerfully, the film asks us to question ourselves and our humanity. When these characters try to find ways to prove their capacity to love, it’s something that we realize we take for granted. Yet we, like they, cannot define nor do justice to the feeling. Sometimes we’ll write definitions in our slum books or make grand gestures. Like them though, anything we do will always be left wanting. What is most heartbreaking is that we get our whole lives to do what clones only have a short amount of time to experience. We witness Kath, Ruth, and Tommy struggle to show the world that they are as human as real people and that they too can love just as much as anybody. As a result, while this film doesn’t have any of the big explosions of that previously mentioned clone flick, it packs more punch and leaves us floored with emotion. – YA, GMA News