Those who have read Kazuo Ishiguro’s highly acclaimed, bestselling novel ‘Never Let Me Go’ will already know the intimate themes which go beyond the science fiction face-value of this dystopian story.

Mark Romanek’s screenplay (written by Alex Garland), like the book, is narrated by 28-year-old Kathy (played by Carey Mulligan who is as convincing as ever). When the lives of her friends are coming to an end, she finds herself looking back on the sequence of events that brought them all to their demise.

In this alternate England, there exists an ostensibly idyllic boarding school run by the stern and to-the-point Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling) in the peaceful countryside town of Hailsham. It is here that the students must robotically take their daily vitamins, keep physically fit and never, ever go beyond the school premises.

As Miss Lucy (played charmingly by Sally Hawkins) states to a class of eleven-year olds, these children must live the life already set out for them and they do, without question. Without giving away too much to those less familiar with the story, this film is a drama about love, friendship, duty and betrayal following kind-hearted Kathy and her best friends: impulsive and conceited Ruth (Keira Knightley) and awkward Tommy (played by Andrew Garfield who gives the stand-out performance of the film). Ultimately, it’s a love triangle but with lots more baggage then you would get in any other film of that kind.

The first part of this film provides the foundations for the character development of these three. The young cast (Isobel Meikle-Small as Kathy, Ella Purnell as Ruth and Charlie Rowe as Tommy) merge themselves into their characters so believably that the older cast admitted in an interview to modelling their character mannerisms to those of their younger counterparts.

Despite practising role-plays of everyday situations as part of their curriculum, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy find themselves stumbling over making a restaurant order when they are finally left to their own devices in the outside world. Having grown-up as the third-wheel to Ruth and Tommy, Kathy makes a decision which will take her away from her friends until they are later reunited almost ten years later to a completely different dynamic.

Ishiguro and Romanek’s hauntingly dystopian ‘Never Let Me Go’ is not meant to be overshadowed by its alternate reality (which is set in a very normal and beautiful England) but is meant to shine light on life experiences and the certainty of mortality and with the perfect cast, setting and story, it does.