Kathy (Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION), Tommy (Andrew Garfield, BOY A, RED RIDING) and Ruth (Oscar nominee Keira Knightley, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, ATONEMENT) live in a world and a time that feel familiar to us, but are not quite like anything we know. They spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. When they leave the shelter of the school and the terrible truth of their fate is revealed to them, they must also confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that threaten to pull them apart.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• Carey Mulligan is such a good actress that she blew her two costars out of the water. My eyes were on her for practically the entire film because she was so mesmerizing.
• I’m glad that the movie adaptation stayed mostly faithful to the book and there wasn’t some ridiculous Hollywood ending attached to give it more appeal.
• One small detail I liked was during Ruth’s third donation, when she “completed.” The medical personnel just cleared out of the room without giving her a second thought. No one announced her time of death or even bothered to cover her face with a sheet. She obviously wasn’t human to them.
• The scene at the headmistress’ house where Tommy and Kathy thought they could get a deferral was poignant in a pathetic way. I don’t think Kathy ever bought into the notion 100%, but dim bulb, naive Tommy fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
• Kath’s calm acceptance of her fate at the end of the movie and her rumination that her lot might not be any worse than a “receiver” because “everyone completes.” That was just wonderful.

Disliked:

• Usually I complain that movies are too long these days, but I had the opposite problem with Never Let Me Go. Because it was so short, we didn’t get nearly enough time with the characters as adults. This made it hard to connect with them and figure out their motivations.
• Andrew Garfield was just terrible in this! I loved him as Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, but he was godawful as Tommy here. I couldn’t stand his take on the character (especially whenever he went on and ON about his stupid-ass drawings) and wanted him off my screen as soon as possible.
• Keira Knightley wasn’t much better, to be honest. She’s usually at least easy on the eyes, but I wasn’t digging her dingy brunette look in this one.
• I didn’t understand the need for Ruth (Keira) to apologize to Tommy and Kathy at the end of the film. She may have done her best to deliberately keep them apart while at school, but where was Tommy’s culpability in all that? She wasn’t holding him against his will, so he needs to accept some of the blame. Then when they left the Cottages, if Tommy and Kathy were such star-crossed lovers, why didn’t they make any attempt to hook up over the next 10 years?

Rating:

I thought the book version of Never Let Me Go was better because it allows you to get to know the characters better and gain some more insight into them. But this isn’t a terrible adaptation, and at just 97 minutes long (excluding credits), it is certainly very watchable. Carey Mulligan elevates what would have been a 2-star movie into something a little bit better. I give this one 3 stars out of 5.

1. The Avengers, $103 million
2. Dark Shadows, $28.8M
3. Think Like a Man, $6.3M
4. The Hunger Games, $4.4M
5. The Lucky One, $4.05M
6. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, $3.2M
7. The Five-Year Engagement, $3.1M
8. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, $2.65M
9. Chimpanzee, $1.62M
10. Girl in Progress, $1.35M

Cougar Town 3×11 — “Down South”: I liked Grayson trying to figure out a catchphrase for when he shuts down his bar. That seems like something he would do, and he failed miserably at it (as expected). But I HATED the Laurie/Travis stuff. I cannot stand Dan Byrd’s character on this show (I have felt from the first episode that he’s the weakest link), and think he and Laurie have ZERO chemistry. It doesn’t make sense for them to be together, but I guess the writes are determined to make it happen. Sigh.

Criminal Minds 7×22 — “Profiling 101″: This episode was kind of boring, but at least I didn’t have to watch some random unsub the whole time. I wish this show would get back to its roots, which is profiling. When was the last time the team came up with an interesting profile beyond the “white male, 30-40 years old, etc.”? Remember in Season 1 when Gideon predicted one of the killers would have a limp??? Now THAT was a profile! These days it seems that nothing differentiates the killers except their motive — and that’s not very interesting at all.

I didn’t care for the other stuff. Manny as a wannabe stockbroker didn’t do it for me, and the Lily on a leash gag shouldn’t have lasted that long (though I did enjoy Jay’s solution to the problem). I guess I’m just glad this wasn’t the finale, as there doesn’t seem to be anything compelling to come back for next season.

I haven’t read any speculation or spoilers for Season 5, but I wouldn’t be too upset if Beckett opened her own investigation agency instead of going back to the force. Ryan and Esposito could be her connection to all the fancy equipment and police databases, and then she and Castle could still work cases together without straining the whole “research” concept.

Here are the weekend box office returns for the weekend ending 5/6/12:

1. The Avengers, $200 million
2. Think Like a Man, $8 M
3. The Hunger Games, $5.7 M
4. The Lucky One, $5.51 M
5. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, $5.5 M
6. The Five-Year Engagement, $5.09 M
7. The Raven, $2.51 M
8. Safe, $2.47 M
9. Chimpanzee, $2.4 M
10. The Three Stooges, $1.8 M

Peter’s testimony at the deposition was pretty good, though I’m not sure why the fact that he and Alicia are separated would automatically erase suspicions about him trying to influence the judge. Couldn’t his alleged actions simply be construed as an attempt to win Alicia back?? I can understand the lawsuit coming to a grinding halt if Peter and Alicia were divorced. But just being separated doesn’t seem like a big enough bombshell. Guess it doesn’t matter in the end since it was all “misdirection” anyway.

NCIS 9×22– “Playing with Fire”: I dislike these multi-episode arcs because I think the writers don’t do them very well. I’m not invested in this storyline at all, so whenever the focus was on the saboteur, I was flipping through different apps on my phone. I didn’t pay attention to that stuff AT ALL. I only looked up when Ducky was talking about his will (strange, since the actor is slated to appear for two more seasons) and when Ziva was giving Tony a hard time about her stupid pilates weekend with her landlord (and, really, WTF was that all about???). Zzzzzz….when is the season over?!

Cougar Town 3×10 — “Southern Accents”: There weren’t really a lot of laughs for me in this one. I’m glad to see that Andy will be given something substantial to do (he really would make a good mayor!), and I like the fact that Grayson’s baby mama (I don’t know here name yet) will be around more frequently. The Cul-de-sac crew could certainly use some new blood! Plus, Travis had a good point about Jill’s mother basically being like a young, struggling Jules when she first became a mother. It’ll be interesting to see where this storyline goes.

Criminal Minds 7×21 — “Divining Rod”: I don’t think I understood this episode. Was the wife somehow implicated as being the one manipulating the shuttle driver into becoming obsessed with her? That didn’t make much sense at all, but that’s what I was led to believe based on the fact that the driver denied having any knowledge of the 1001 Nights quote — which was supposedly used in his fan letters to the original serial killer. But if it was the wife pulling the strings all along, why did she bother faking fan letters from the shuttle driver??? And how did she manage to get him to kill women as some sort of sick tribute to her husband?? It was just too confusing and weird….

The Phil/Claire plot was the best, but even that was predictable. I knew as soon as he drove off the lot in that Porsche with its convertible top, slick rims, and Airtex in tank electric fuel pump Claire would not be happy. Was anyone surprised that he had to give it up by the end of the ep? Doubtful. But Claire’s scene with Phil at the beach was sweet, and was a nice payoff for the viewer.

Why is it that Castle and Beckett, two adults, can’t bring themselves to talk about their true feelings for each other in a direct way? Maybe Beckett is uncomfortable doing so and has her “wall” up or whatever, but Castle certainly isn’t like that. A straightforward confession from him when she’s not bleeding from a GSW to the chest is simply too much to ask, I guess.

The Alexis/Castle stuff was cool. I liked his plaintive, “But who will play with me?” when Alexis was still contemplating going to school so far away (despite every single viewer knowing her ultimate choice would be in NYC). His delivery was funny on that one. I also liked the ongoing laser tag game, though I have to wonder how Castle didn’t notice Alexis’ final ambush. If anyone had installed pullies in my living room for the sake of rappelling down to scare/shoot me, I think I would have noticed! (Or maybe that means the equipment was already there???)

Anyway, next week is the finale and the promos make it look like the Castle/Beckett ‘ship will set sail at last. Will it live up to expectations?

Here are the weekend box office returns for the weekend ending 4/29/12:

1. Think Like a Man, $18 million
2. The Pirates! Band of Misfits, $11.4 M
3. The Lucky One, $11.3 M
4. The Hunger Games, $11.2 M
5. The Five-Year Engagement, $11.2 M
6. Safe, $7.72 M
7. The Raven, $7.25 M
8. Chimpanzee, $5.5 M
9. The Three Stooges, $5.4 M
10. The Cabin in the Woods, $4.5 M