The world has become uninhabitable and the only hope for the survival of mankind is to create a fully functioning city way down deep in the earth. Scientists and scholars have determined that the city should be able to sustain life for 200 years at which point the surface of the planet will likely be in good enough shape for whoever's left down below to come up and rebuild. All of this is laid out in a set of instructions enclosed in a special box. The plan is for every mayor of the city of Ember to pass the box and its secret contents down to the next mayor until the countdown clock on the outside of the box clicks down to 000. At that time the box will open, the instructions can be read, and the citizens can make their way out of Ember.
But as often happens with the carefully laid plans of mice and men, things go horribly wrong. The 7th mayor dies suddenly without passing the box on to his successor. With the importance of its contents lost, the box is left on a shelf in a closet to conclude its countdown to 00 with no one the wiser.
Fast-forward 200+ years from the creation of Ember and the generator that provides the electricity for the entire city is dying a slow, laborious death. Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon (Harry Treadaway), two teenagers just assigned their full-time jobs, seem to be the only people in the city who are not only worried about the generator, but who are determined to do something about it.
The Cast
Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway are terrific as the enterprising teens. Their characters are mixtures of MacGyver, Indiana Jones, and Einstein, and both Ronan and Treadaway are believable figures in this twisty sci-fi environment. The film's adult stars – Murray, Tim Robbins, Toby Jones, and Mary Kay Place – have little to do other than to look menacing or supportive, as the case may be.
The Bottom Line
There is absolutely nothing to criticize about the sets of City of Ember. The city is a living, breathing character which is exactly what director Gil Kenan was striving for. Ember's streets, tunnels, and the generator at the heart of the city look fabulous.
The sets are great, the two young leads are great, so why did I feel so disconnected from the story? There's a minimal amount of explanation given as to why these people are living underground and then bam!, the film just takes off. I felt like I'd walked into a movie halfway in progress with no one around to fill me in on what I missed. That said, I'm not sure adding another 10 minutes or more to the beginning of the film to give the audience a better idea of what we were in for would have done anything to improve the film.
In City of Ember, the fate of mankind rests on a bunch of underground dwellers who've bred, with the exception of only a handful of independent thinkers, the intelligence out of themselves. Civilization is doomed and so is this movie if it's unable to draw in fans of the book.
GRADE: C
City of Ember was directed by Gil Kenan and is rated PG for mild peril and some thematic elements.
Theatrical Release Date: October 10, 2008
