Mark Romanek made his name as one of the most interesting directors with music videos such as NIN’s Closer, The Perfect Drug, Fiona Apple’s Criminal, and The Eels’ Novocaine for the Soul. It is therefore not surprising that his sophomore feature effort (after 2002’s One Hour Photo) is more of an atmospheric success than a captivating story. The film stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield (the next Peter Parker) as clones genetically engineered for organ donation. The story begins with the three as small children in their clone-filled boarding school and follows them through the revelation and eventual acceptance of their fates. An unrealized childhood romance between Mulligan’s Kathy and Garfield’s Tommy flares up when the pair are young adults and leads them towards a long rumored hope that those who fall in true love will be spared.

Romanek makes some very mature decisions and his muted style is quite striking. Adam Kimmel does gorgeous things with dreary English photography creating a memorable earthy palette. This is refelected brilliantly in the costume design which serves as a window into the repressed emotions of the characters. All three leads give stunning performances – nothing new for Knightley but very encouraging to see from Mulligan’s as a follow-up to her Oscar nom’d performance in An Education. Given that all of these elements hit, it is particularly dissapointing that the story is a bit of a miss. I couldn’t help thinking over and over that this must be a much better book. Critical moments in the plot seem to happen at the wrong time or are never shown at all. It seems odd that the characters never really question their roles in this world. But the most grievous fault is that the romance between Kathy and Tommy is tragically underdeveloped. I needed to fall in love with Kathy if I was going to truly mourn for her plight and it simply never happened. Romanek’s film is admirable in its competent style – but unfortunately just doesn’t deliver as a love story.