CITY OF EMBER (2008) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Gil Kenan
Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray,
Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Toby Jones,
David Ryall, Mary Kay Place, Mackenzie Crook
Two hundred years after its first inhabitants tunneled down from the earth's surface, the once-gleaming underground city of Ember is falling apart. Lights flicker and dim and go out, powered by a dying generator. Food is becoming scarce, at least partly because the corrupt mayor (Bill Murray) is hoarding as much as he can for himself. Water pipes are repaired with rags, tape, spit, whatever's available. Gears and wheels creak and rust. In fact, Ember with its retro-industrial design looks a lot like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", and that's not an accident. "City of Ember" is a juvenile reworking of "Metropolis", with Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway as its teenaged protagonists, the only citizens of Ember, apparently, with the imagination and courage to look for a way out. It might be aimed squarely at kids between 8 and 12, but unlike a lot of kids' movies, it doesn't play it too cute or insult anybody's intelligence. The story holds your interest, and Kenan and the design team conjure up a credible vision of the ways an isolated society and its infrastructure could evolve and decay over time. Tim Robbins plays an eccentric inventor. Martin Landau plays the wild-haired workman who helps Ronan and Treadaway navigate the pipeworks. And there's a rat. A big rat. A great big rat with red, slimy, tentacle-like things growing out of its face. Ew. Yuck.
