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City of Ember
A fabulous construction of a movie, adpated from the children's novel by Jeanne Duprau
Add together Monster House director Gil Kenan, a children's novel by Jeanne Duprau, a screenplay by Edward Scissorhands writer Caroline Thompson and the mighty talents of Bill Murray (not to mention Tim Robbins, Liz Smith, Mackenzie Crook, Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway), and you would be hard pushed not to come up with something magnificent.
Happily, City of Ember is equal to the sum of its parts. We're in a subterranean, post-apocalyptic world with orphaned 12-year-old Lina (Ronan) and her pal Doon (Treadaway) scrabbling for survival whilst caring for Lina's batty grandmother (Smith) and younger sister.
Casting a shadow over their fragile existence is the knowledge that the future of their underground world is threatened, and the city's mayor (Murray) is doing nothing to save it. And so it must fall to our young heroes to rescue their homeland by sidestepping the mayor and venturing into the great unknown beyond its boundaries. City of Ember is a fabulous construction of a movie, leading us into a world that is rich, vivid and engaging. Excellent stuff. ·
