[7]

I’ll get straight to the point: This is the saddest goddamned motherfucking movie ever made. If you want to cry your eyes out forever and ever, watch Never Let Me Go. Okay. Now, with that out of the way…

Director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) takes on the award-winning Kazuo Ishiguro novel about three young friends who grow up together under close supervision in a rural English school. You get hints pretty early on that this isn’t quite our world and our time — it’s a science-fiction tale in which certain people have to fulfill certain horrific and heartbreaking destinies.

Three-quarters into the movie, the pervasive melancholy was beginning to grate one my nerves. Thankfully, the final act brings perspective and context, not to mention some stellar acting from leads Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield.

With Keira Knightley and Charlotte Rampling.