Mark Romanek's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go is an elegiac, achingly tragic love story. It is a near-perfect meeting of a brilliant cast, a potent director wise enough to know when to exercise restraint, and a remarkable script from Alex Garland. It is also one of the most haunting, unusual and potent examples of modern science fiction despite existing in an earlier period of our own world with nothing particularly technological on display. It is an exploration of the rule of cost and benefit, with one very significant benefit to humanity coming at a staggering cost to the three young children at the core of the story and, presumably, tens of thousands more.

Kathy, Tommy and Ruth are students at the exclusive Hailsham School, a picture perfect example of private English education but for a few disturbing notes. None of these children appear to have parents and all have been conditioned to fear leaving the grounds with stories of the horrors that lie beyond the fences. It is not until a new teacher arrives at the school that the students get any sense of what lies in their future as they're told that the options open to other children will not be theirs, that their course is already set, and their lives will be short -- a piece of honesty that sees their caring new teacher promptly dismissed.

Though it is Kathy and Tommy who appear to be the natural couple, the duo forming a sweet and gentle bond, it is Kathy's best friend Ruth who seizes the opportunity to claim Tommy for her own, introducing a note of discord and quiet longing from Kathy that will inform their relationship for the rest of their lives - lives that will take them from Hailsham to a residence known simply as The Cottages, where they will await the inevitable call of their future Completion.

Plot specifics are something I would prefer to avoid here, the story being so unique and compelling that I would hate to rob anyone the pleasure of discovering it for themselves. But it is safe to say that it is a beautiful, relentlessly sad tale, the young trio forming a triangle of love and longing that would be doomed even if not for the competition between Ruth and Kathy. Romanek does a remarkable job of building the rhythm, mood and tone of the piece, helped greatly in that effort by what is surely the most subtle and nuanced script that Alex Garland (28 Days Later, The Beach) has ever produced.

Helping even more, however, is the simply flawless casting of Andrew Garfield - this and The Social Network being your last chances to see him before he is chewed up by the Hollywood machine as the new Spider-Man - Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan as the trio at the core. While it is Mulligan who most informs the film as Kathy - the entire picture seeming to be an expression of Kathy's personality - the relationship between the three of them feels completely natural and effortless, the trio feeling every bit the lifelong friends they portray on screen.

Never Let Me Go is the sort of film likely to provoke love from critics and confusion from marketers, and will very likely need to rely on word of mouth and awards season to convince audiences to head to the theater to experience it. Consider this an early shot on the word of mouth front: Never Let Me Go is a beautiful film that absolutely deserves to be on the big screen. I fully expect that the awards will be following soon.