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Dir. Gil Kenan

Rating: 5.0  |  0 User Reviews  |  Send to Friend

By Jes Sipling

From the director of Monster House, and based on Jeanne DuPrau’s three-part series The Books of Ember, comes another addition to the fantasy-driven Snicket-Compass-Potter genre. Finding Earth uninhabitable, a group of scientists construct an underground city to house humankind. Intending the city to open in 200 years, the scientists leave instructions for escape locked in a timed box, entrusted to the mayor of the city. Director Gil Kenan shows the countdown through the passing of the box from mayor to mayor until it is dropped, and sits forgotten in a closet, slowing reaching zero and popping open. Now, the city is in shambles, run by filthy, gluttonous Mayor Cole (Bill Murray), and suffering lengthening blackouts due to their failing core: the Generator. We are introduced to the two main characters, Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon (Harry Treadaway) on “Assignment Day,” when the students of Ember select their careers out of a bag, bringing to mind Lois Lowry’s "The Giver." Doon, against the wishes of his proverb-spouting father (Tim Robbins) wants nothing more than to be selected to work in the Generator, believing he can fix the city’s impending loss of power. When he ends up a pipe worker and the blackouts continue, he starts poking around on his own. Through a convoluted sequence of events, the children find out about the box and come to believe it is the key to salvation. It also happens to be hidden in Lina’s closet. This sparks the only conflict in the movie: Mayor Cole would prefer the city goes to ruin before he lifts a finger and he tries to arrest Lina and Doon. The rest of the town is no help either: they would rather hope the “The Builders” will save them, an unsubtle allusion to god and the dash of Liberalist spice that probably secured Robbins as part of the cast. Although commendable directorial skill takes us through breath-taking set design while the children try to save Ember, the adventure factor is pedestrian at best. Furthermore, the plot lacks the dark edge that propelled the works of Rowling, Pullman, and even Lewis out of the Children’s Lit section and into the hands of adults worldwide. As such, the film will most likely just be extinguished before we see parts two and three come to light.

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