It seems like we've been hearing good things about Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley in Never Let Me Go for months. Ever since it was premiered at the London Film Festival back in October MyDaily has been eager to watch the flick starring two of Britain's most stylish actresses.
The film, adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro's novel of the same name, has been praised for its fine British cast and Carey, Keira and Andrew Garfield certainly didn't disappoint.
Never Let Me Go is set in England in a parallel version of the recent past, in which a separate category of cloned humans is raised apart for a life of "donations" that will culminate in their "completion".
Ruth (Keira), Kathy (Carey) and Tommy (Andrew) are three young people who have grown up incarcerated in Hailsham, a strange, elite boarding school for this very disturbing purpose.
As adults they become involved in a love triangle made more painful by the consciousness of how short their lives are to be. Ruth is sexy and smart, Tommy is awkward and vulnerable and Kathy is sweet and more mature than the others. All three British actors play their roles to perfection, with Keira playing a particularly irksome character.
The film has been promoted largely as a love story, however there's also this very intelligent sci-fi backdrop, which provides the basis of the lovers problems.
Some have criticised the writer Alex Garland's adaptation of Ishiguro's novel for its compression of the original story and the loss of book's peculiar narrative voice. However, having never read the book we watched it without any expectations and subsequently didn't see it for what it wasn't.
The film is too tasteful to be scary - certainly don't expect to jump out of your seat. The horror aspect of their lives as "donors" could certainly have been played up more, but as a love story it can't be faulted.
Overall, it's a fresh, unique and brilliant British film that's showcased once again how much we love best-friends Keira and Carey.
Never Let Me Go is in cinemas from Friday 11 February 2011. Take a look at what's in store below.