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TV show review: CONTINUUM season 4
PHOTOGRAPHY

NEVER LET ME GO
DVD Review by David Blackwell

DETAILS:   104 minutes, making-of fetaurette, three slide show galleries, theatrical trailer
VIDEO:  2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
AUDIO:  English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French Dolby Surround, Spanish Dolby Surround
Subtitles:  English SDH, Spanish

STUDIO:  Fox Searchlight Pictures/  DNA Films/ Film 4/ 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE:  2-1-2011

NEVER LET ME GO takes place in an alternate dystopia universe where clones are raised from birth to be organ donors.   The movie focuses on Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy who become entangled in a love triangle from the boarding school they grow up in to the places they stay after that when they hit adult age.  They fight against their fates as genetically engineered organ donors as rumor float that a couple in love could get a deferral. 

NEVER LET ME GO is a low tech sci-fi film high on ideas and questions about ethics.  It focuses on story and characters while making the technology be seen in the background in a world like ours and yet a little different in terrifying ways.  The clones have doubts and they struggle in their lives with their limited experience due to their sheltered lives.   Some get more out of life being carers for Possibles (the donor clones), but their ticket will be up when they are called to donate.    NEVER LET ME GO is moving.    The film is entirely from the POVs of the clones with the film being narrated by Kathy H.   It traces three different periods in the lives of these clones.   You ask why they could live like this and why don't they run away.  Some of them are proud of being donors while others struggle to find a way to escape their fate.   Sci-fi at its cores is about ideas and NEVER LET ME GO falls into that type of sci-fi film.   If you're tried of the same old sci-fi action film and want something to move you, watch NEVER LET ME GO.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
THE SECRETS OF NEVER LET ME GO is a making-of featurette that has interviews with the book's author Kazou Ishiguro, screenwriter Alex Garland, and director Mark Romanek.  It traces the development of the book into a movie.

Three slide show galleries-  DIRECTOR MARK ROMANEK'S ON-SET PHOTOGRAPHY, TOMMY'S ART, NATIONAL DONOR PROGRAMME & HALISHAM CAMPAIGN GRAPHICS

Also included is the trailer for the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  NEVER LET ME GO is a thought-provoking sci-fi film that makes you feel for it's characters who wish they had more life.

this DVD review is (c)2-9-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com