Hey folks. Capone in Chicago here. Tossing in a bit of that old time religion into what is essentially a story designed for young adults has never really bothered me. I find it kind of amusing most of the time. So hearing talk of civilization rising from the darkness into the light and ancient scriptures and mysterious unseen figures known as "the builders" doesn't faze me, at least not in a bad way. Whether it's the often-interpreted anti-Catholicism thread running through the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, or all of the Jesus symbolism of the Narnia books, spiritual references and doctrine are as much a part of certain types of literature as they are films, although often these overtones are toned down in films. Not so much with CITY OF EMBER, a film as much about using your brain and thinking for yourself as it is about following the texts of the ancients. Based on the novel by Jeanne Duprau (and adapted by Caroline Thompson, who also wrote the screenplays for EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and CORPSE BRIDE), CITY OF EMBER is the story of Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway, who played Joy Division's drummer in last year's CONTROL), who lives with his inventor father Louis (Tim Robbins) in an elaborate city apparently located underground. If I understand the mythology correctly, the people of Ember went underground after the "end of the world." They were placed down there with a suitcase of sorts set to open up 200 years after the descent. The suitcase contained the instructions on how the people could return to the surface safely, but the suitcase was lost, and the people ended up staying down there far longer than the city was built to last. At the heart of the city is a generator that has been breaking down a lot lately, causing citywide blackouts and rumblings that feel like mild earthquakes. Doon works with the city's pipelines, but has a great deal of access to many of the mechanisms keeping civilization functional. He is friendly with Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan, best known for playing the lying younger sister of Kyra Knightley in ATONEMENT; she's also set to play the dead girl/narrator in Peter Jackson's THE LOVELY BONES adaptation), a messenger in the city who races from person to person delivering verbal telegrams. Doon and Lina find various clues that things are going horribly wrong in the city, and that Mayor Cole (Bill Murray, in one of his most head-scratching characters) and his associates (led by right-hand man Toby Jones) are not putting the community's best interests first as panic sets in with each new blackout. The young twosome put their big brains together to discover all sorts of hidden codes and rooms and agendas, and above all else, the film is a celebration of intelligence over all other things, which is quite refreshing. Kenan's exquisite visual style, so perfectly realized in the animated greatness MONSTER HOUSE, is a little more dreary in CITY OF EMBER, but there are some details in the catacombs and machinery of Ember that are well worth examining. The production design here is unreal, and reveals the city as a sort of living organism and fully realized character in this movie. There are a couple of times when the design looks more like a theme park, and those moments took me right out of the story. Despite some nice supporting roles and extended cameos from the likes of Murray, Robbins, Martin Landau, Mackenzie Crook and even Mary Kay Place, the best acting comes from the two young lead actors. Younger actors can really grate on me, but for some reason Ronan and Treadaway really impressed me. Director Kenan is clearly having fun with his gadgets and contraptions and hidden passages and alcoves. Sometimes his enthusiasm translates, and sometimes it falls short of really becoming infectious, which is what I really wanted to happen. That's absolutely nothing horribly wrong or embarrassing about CITY OF EMBER; it just doesn't always leap off the scream the way it needs to sometimes. There's a huge mole creature that slithers around Ember eating everything in sight; that is badass. But the long boat ride at the end of the film didn't thrill me the way I think it was meant to. In a lot of ways, that's how I felt about the movie itself. There are quite a few things to take great pleasure in, but overall, my pulse probably never raced once while watching the film. I'm still on the fence about this one; I think this is officially a "mixed review" from me. -- Capone capone@aintitcoolmail.com
