How different are we from machines? | Never Let Me Go (2010 film by Mark Romanek)

It's a film that came unexpectedly as the first rainfall of May. I only had a little knowledge what the film is about, turns out it was based from Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel Never Let Me Go. On the brief description that I've read about this film, it's a story of three friends, from childhood to young adulthood, that came to know the reality of the world they're living in —a dystopian world that I didn't expect of.

A few seconds into the film, a preview of what the setting looked like was shown through this short narrative about medical science. The horror was unfolded to me with more weight because I didn't know the fact that the film lies in the genre of dystopian science fiction, but more to that later. The story was narrated by one of the main characters, Kathy H. She was generous on telling about her life at the present and the old times she spent in two distinct places —Hailsham and The Cottages.

In the old times, people were educated in boarding schools, something we're no longer familiar of. I've always pictured boarding schools to be very orderly and faithful to their daily routines. At Hailsham, children were given shelter and classes (mostly about art and manners), they were allowed to play at the school's grounds too. It was an ideal place to raise children, to prepare them to a world where they can be anything they want. Children are taken care of and are able to live comfortably, from my perspective, Hailsham is a place where young ones can know and hone themselves to the adult they would be in a few years. There was this scene when Ruth and Kathy were talking about the things they'd want in the future far from them, young innocent Ruth wanted to horses, five to be exact. Her wants and maybe even her dreams at that young age were honest, true to what a child wants. There's just this one problem, they couldn't go beyond the fence that surrounds the school. Children were told gruesome death stories of the people who went outside the borders of Hailsham. The lies they were told became recognizable when Ms. Lucy, their new guardian told them the truth about their fate.

Hailsham was only an idealistic place for a reason, it was a school that caters for clones. Another mystery left out by the film is how the children at Hailsham came to be or how were the clones made. Even though the children were provided with care and protection, it was only for a reason that they could be of used as organ donors for their Possibles, the ones they were modeled from, the ones living the normal life that we have right now.

Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy lived on with their lives at Hailsham, accepting their fate. The three were packed as a group throughout the film, although, a friendship between Kathy and Tommy and Kathy and Ruth were first established. The story plot at Hailsham came to an end with a hint of complication on the relationships of the three. Little Kathy seemed to like Tommy, to which he felt the same. But it turns out that Ruth liked Tommy better than her, for Ruth teased odd and furious Tommy when Kathy was his only friend, a manifestation of affection.

Odd for me but the story goes on. The children of Hailsham reaching their teenage years were housed in different places. The three friends met clones from other schools at The Cottages, it was a farm house where they were allowed to experience the outside. They were allowed to go for a walk, visit other places, and interact with other people; all these as they wait for their notice. In this waiting phase, they were given the choice to live normally as possible or they can apply as carers. This job somehow extends their time in the waiting, their notice for their first donation could be put off for a little while. They can be given more time to live out their best times.

This setting of the film, for me, was the darkest. At the age where you're no longer a child and you're not yet an adult, life could be confusing. But the three remain unshaken in their waiting, even though they're no longer feeling child-like joys and they're not yet mature enough to be well understanding of things. They were just set on how they'll end up in the next few years. At The Cottages, relationships among the three became more complicated to the point that it was the place where they fall apart as a pack. Kathy left for training to be a carer, Ruth and Tommy ended their romantic relationship and went separate ways.

This third and last phase of the film went back to where it started, Kathy telling their story as she reflects of her past years, with Ruth and Tommy and alone as a carer. Kathy sees herself as an accomplished carer, she keeps company of clones throughout the first and last of their donations. Kathy takes good care of people that she'd become of when she's given notice of her donations. Her life as a carer came to a different route when she saw Ruth's file, now a donor. The three were reunited soon as Kathy and Ruth talked about how years have passed since they last met. As Ruth came clean for ruining Kathy and Tommy's could have been, she suggested that the two apply for a deferral to Madame —a few years delay for them to make donations. Two people who are in love with each other can be given more time by applying for a deferral. Kathy who was initially resistant to this suggestion gave in as Tommy (already a donor) wanted to apply. Tommy thought they could make it. He knew Kathy loved him and that he loved her too. Madame was the first and only authority they had, she was at Hailsham when they were still children. Tommy was then serious into getting his work of art be displayed in The Gallery, to which Madame gets to decide with a Yes or a No.

It was like Tommy was holding the last piece of the puzzle when he figured out that his drawings could prove the trueness of his and Kathy's love for each other. At Hailsham, they thought that the art they make reflects the kind of soul that is within them. Just like looking at a mirror, Madame could see the form of love they have for each other. The few more years they could get once their deferral application be approved were something they could already be hopeful of. A few more years are still a measure of time that they could spend with each other. But this hope in them was trampled shortly when Madame said that the deferral was another lie. There was no such thing. The didn't look at their art works to see what kind of soul they had as artists, they only wanted to know if there could have a soul in them —children that were fated as clones and donors to their Possibles.

For Kathy it was when she was watching Tommy go through his next donation that turned out to be his last one. He never made it. Kathy looked at Tommy with a questioning face, thinking that even with their fate being decided just like machines that are heavily programmed for a task, there's a difference she wanted to draw out.

In this film where Kathy, Ruth, Tommy, and the children of Hailsham were clones made to donate themselves to save the lives of the people they were modeled from, a question of how human are they as portrayed by their story. If art shows the soul of its artist, then the three who grew up making pieces of art for The Gallery had beautiful souls. And Kathy was right, they were different from the machines, for they had souls.