Film Review

09 January 2009 12:03 BST

City of Ember

Directed by Gil Kenan, out 10th October, starring Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, running time 95 mins.

In a nutshell...

Spirited adventure for the kids.

What's it all about?

Ember is an immense underground city lit only by a giant, ageing generator that powers hundreds of dangling light bulbs and is slowly reaching the end of its life. Surrounded by apathetic adults, youngsters Doon (Treadaway) and Lina (Ronan) decide they want out. Trips beyond the city are forbidden, but then the discovery of a secret box offers tantalising clues pointing the way to a world beyond Ember.

Who's in it?

Bill Murray is best known for his comedy roles in the iconic Ghostbusters films of the 1980s, while more recently he's worked with writer-director Wes Anderson on films such as Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. He also made an impression opposite Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation.

Tim Robbins starred opposite Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption and worked with the Coen Brothers on The Hudsucker Proxy, both in 1994. Since then he's appeared mainly in supporting roles in the likes of War of the Worlds and Mystic River.

Martin Landau is a legendary veteran of TV and cinema. He won an Oscar in 1994 for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, and he has been nominated twice more.

Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway have both built impressive CVs in television, and Ronan will be seen soon in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones.

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Not much chance for the acting talent, but the production design might get a nod.

What the others say

"With Ember's hydro-electro-punk charms, Gil Kenan's convinced us he's one of Hollywood's most exciting (and excited!) visualists. But on the evidence of this, his storytelling skills still need honing." – Empire

"Despite a classy cast - Toby Jones, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau - this is fantasy which runs low on a crucial ingredient: imagination." – Guardian

So is it any good?

You can't help but walk away from City of Ember feeling short-changed. On the one hand director Gil Kenan presents a bustling industrial metropolis that is an instant visual feast. It brims with detail and excites the senses as a mish-mash of Terry Gilliam's cinematic legacy, raiding stylistic ideas from the likes of Brazil and The Fisher King, while also nudging us into the fantastical realms realised by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet in the City of Lost Children. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, while the production design may be impressive, the same care and attention hasn't been paid to the screenplay. While the young leads Ronan and Treadaway are likeable enough, Oscar-winners Robbins and Landau have little to work with, Landau in fact spending most of the film asleep in a running sight-gag that might just about keep the kids happy. Bill Murray coasts by as the city's beleaguered mayor, while Mackenzie Crook crops up for an extended cameo as a greasy pipe-worker up to no good.

The plot hinges simply on the desire to escape the city, with the clues to a potential exit slowly revealing themselves, although Kenan is happy to draw out the puzzle by taking the occasional sub-plot-flavoured spin around his lovingly realised city. Queries are left disappointingly unanswered along the way. What was the unspecified event that led them all there in the first place? Why are the kids being attacked by a giant mutant mole?

Then again, to criticise the lack of depth is to miss the point here. The film is aimed squarely at the kids, and with the star of the show clearly being the city itself, it doesn't disappoint. There's no shortage of architectural eye-candy, from impressive aerial shots over the city square, to the towering but dying generator itself, spitting sparks like it was about to bring Frankenstein's monster back from the dead. It makes you wonder what Kenan could've done with the Narnia franchise if Walden Media (the studio responsible here as well) hadn't chosen Andrew Adamson to doom the first two films to mediocrity.

Still, not a bad effort for only his second film, so hopefully Kenan's ability to tell a good story will improve for the next project.

Go for the scenery, but don't look for too much below the surface.

6/10

Nick Goundry

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