The story follows three children: Tommy, Ruth and Cathy (who narrates) growing up at Hailsham, a rather unusual boarding school. Its obvious from the opening captions that this is not quite the world as we know it and that these children do not have quite a normal life. The film is hard to define genre-wise, the source novel won sci-fi awards, but that might be doing it a disservice.
Tommy, Ruth and Cathy (who grow up to be Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan respectively) share an unusual fate, a path already marked out for them. What is so effective here is that as it becomes clear what is going on, there is no great attempt to escape but rather the lostness of three youngsters trying to understand their existence and what is happening around them. Indeed, one of the more chilling aspects of this film is how little, other than the bracelets they wear to register in and out of buildings, this brave new world seems to be policed.
The acting is good - Garfield is solid, Knightley does well in bringing a fragile, human side to what could have easily been a dislikeable character. But this is really Mulligan's film and she does a superb job of anchoring the movie. Director Mark Romanek (whose previous feature One Hour Photo I really didn't like despite the critical acclaim) does a fine job as well - the film is beautifully shot and makes great use of its location. The overall feel is a melancholic, almost elegaic one, aided in no small part by Rachel Portman's beautiful score.
The end result is a thought-provoking rather than action packed drama. Two moments in particular are worthy of further reflection - the scene where Tommy and Cathy seek a deferment and are told about asking questions nobody wants an answer to and Cathy's poignant closing reflections.
Overall - 8.5/10 Highly recommended, beautiful, poignant, intelligent and thought-provoking drama.
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