Going defiantly against the grain of a hyperbolic movie culture, “Never Let Me Go” is passionate about deliberation and restraint. Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley, the A Team of young British acting talent, this is a moving and provocative film that initially unsettles, then disturbs and finally haunts you well into the night.

Based on the celebrated novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, “Never Let Me Go” is suffused with the kind of longing for what cannot be that is implicit in its title. It deals on one level with a love that yearns against profound odds to speak its name, but in a deeper sense it offers provoking thoughts about what it means to be human, to have a life at all, and the kinds of unforgivable things that are done to preserve that at all costs.