Ember recalls the more sophisticated world of E.M. Because the people of Ember, forbidden to venture into the above-ground world, have forgotten their past, they face subterranean extinction. Ominous blackouts regularly plunge the city into darkness and supplies are depleted.
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Now it is breaking down and no one knows how to repair it. For 250 years Ember has been run by a generator. The movie's overriding message is anti-technological boilerplate. Tim Robbins is also on hand as Doon's earnest, secretly rebellious father, who spends his days tinkering with exotic inventions. Even when affecting high dudgeon, Murray looks too bored to convey more than token menace.
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Bill Murray droops through the movie as the fat, corrupt mayor of Ember, who maintains a secret bunker stocked with the canned goods that have become scarce. "City of Ember" tosses in an unscary monster that suggests a giant, riled-up rooster on speed, as well as harmless, oversize creatures resembling beetles and cockroaches. In Hollywood-speak, it has a weak second act. At only 95 minutes, the movie feels as though it had been shredded in the editing room.
Most of the time, however, it's a whiz-bang kids film with neat gadgets and sound effects and an extended chase and escape sequence through underground rivers and tunnels. In Jeanne DuPrau's children's novel (the first of the four-part "Book of Ember" series), from which the film was adapted, Lina and Doon are dewy 12-year-old adventurers loaded with pluck but devoid of personality.Īt moments, "City of Ember," directed by the British filmmaker Gil Kenan ("Monster House"), suggests a mild satire of end-of-days ideology, especially when Mary Kay Place appears as a prating, singsongy proselytizer for the status quo. Ronan, who is 14, and the dimple-chinned 24-year-old heartthrob Harry Treadaway portray Lina and Doon, best pals fleeing a subterranean dystopia guided by the kind of cryptic instructions found in the "National Treasure" movies. In "City of Ember," she has nothing to work with. Adapted from Jeanne Duprau’s novel by ‘Edward Scissorhands’ writer Caroline Thompson, this seriously entertaining film celebrates the idea that, despite their elders’ complacency, the young will find the strength to imagine a better future for themselves.To watch the talents of Saoirse Ronan, the brilliant young actress from "Atonement," being wasted in the science-fiction juvenilia of "City of Ember" is to be reminded that a powerful performance needs an equivalent screenplay. So as the exciting, theme-park-ride finale flings the children towards an unknown future, their excitement is tinged with fear.
Its myopic citizens have long since forgotten the teachings of their founding fathers, who created this city as a refuge from some surface-level calamity. There are mysteries to be solved, but Lina and Doon have no idea what lays beyond Ember. Other obstacles include Doon’s fatalistic inventor father (Tim Robbins) and, when they venture into the forbidden hinterlands, a fearsome giant mole.
In a race against time, they pit themselves against the smug Mayor, his smarmy flunky Barton Snode (Toby Jones) and his rat-like henchman Looper (Mackenzie Crook). But messenger Lina and pipe-fixer Doon know that the lights are about to dim for ever. Presiding over this makeshift community is Mayor Cole (Bill Murray), who is too busy slurping tinned fish to bother with the city’s imminent demise. The orphaned Lina also has to care for her doolally grandmother (Liz Smith) and her cute baby sister Poppy. Its fluid visual storytelling draws us into Ember’s subterranean world, where 12-year-old Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and her friend Doon (Harry Treadaway) scrabble to survive. This dystopian sci-fi adventure also refuses to talk down to the ‘family’ audience. Gil Kenan’s scary animated movie ‘Monster House’ acknowledged its young audience’s ability to engage with a surprisingly grown-up story.
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