Director Mark Romanek's haunting aesthetic and Adam Kimmel's gorgeous cinematography is masterfully brought to Blu-ray. The muted color palette is brought forth in a crisp image that finds a right balance between film grain and bold detail. The greens of the Hailsham Boarding School yard are deep, while keeping inline with natural look of the entire film. There is some noise in low-lit scenes, notably an early one where Carey Mulligan stands in an observation room at a hospital, but these moments are fleeting.
The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is respectful for the quiet film. Good for a dialogue oriented production, the voices are clear throughout. Volume of the dialogue, music and sound effects is mixed well. The soundscape however relies on the front speaker predominantly.
The special features are limited. The making of doc, "The Secrets of Never Let Me Go," talks with the filmmakers and actors about their approach to the metaphoric sci-fi material. Considering there is no commentary track on the disc, this is all we get and it's a pretty solid 30-minute look into the film's production. The doc lays out how the project came together; it's funny how serendipity plays a role sometimes. Then it moves into the artistic choices for bringing the beautiful, but sad tale to the screen. There is also still galleries of Romanek's on-set photos, the Tommy character's artwork, as well as the theatrical trailer.
