Erm, their reviewer just didn't get it. In fact, one of the oh-so clever objections was answered by the film if they'd paid attention.

Definitely not for everyone. The very idea of a period-piece which is an alternate-history already throws most folks off. And then turning it into a story about characters and relationships rather than making the what-if? the central feature, is another move which is closer to written science-fiction than to filmic SF. Though one should remember that the novel was published as literature rather than genre fiction; and is by the author of Remains of the Day.

As much as I like Carey Mulligan, I was glad to see the film spend a large chunk of its time on the characters as youngsters. Sure its a downer. But I think that Never Let Me Go is to other films about cloning as Let the Right One In is to other films about Vampires; both invert genre conventions and, having established their premise, spend time focussing on other aspects of the story.

Note, director Mark Romanek also filmed Birth; a tale in which Nicole Kidman plays a widow who is approached by a 10 year old boy born in the moment her husband died who claims to be his reincarnation.

Dante