MOVIE REVIEW: CITY OF EMBER

CITY OF EMBER

Four of Seven Cows

Rarely do I leave a movie theater without knowing whether the movie I just saw was any good. A lack of opinion has rarely been my problem. City of Ember, however, had me scratching my head. Those responsible for this film, including co-producer Tom Hanks, are apparently scratching their heads as well, if the lack of pre-release hype is any indication. You’d think they were trying to keep this one a secret.

           

A family-friendly movie based on the novel by Jeanne Duprau, City of Ember is the story of an underground city, built as the last refuge of the human race after an unspecified apocalypse. The city, built to last two-hundred years, is in its last days, and the box containing instructions for escape has long been lost.

City of Ember’s cast has promise, with Tim Robbins and Bill Murray providing weight. Murray, especially, has the requisite grasp of absurdity to make the most of his take as the mayor of Ember. When the generator – the equivalent of the sun in an underground city – begins to fail, Mayor Cole announces the formation of a committee to study the recent blackouts with mock-earnestness and fanfare.

Murry is brilliant in this scene, and one can hardly avoid comparisons to the earnestness with which the feds have announced recent solutions to problems obviously beyond their comprehension, or the gullibility of the respective crowds. One suspects this social commentary was unintentional, but it’s still good stuff.

            

Harry Treadaway and Saoirse Ronan are fine as the main characters, teen-agers Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet, though I’m tempted to deduct points from Ronan for having a name designed to make everyone that has to pronounce it feel stupid. Go ahead, try it.

       
I do want to make special mention of the set, which seemingly foregoes the computer graphics so in vogue lately for a physical world made of actual wood and glass. I like wood and glass. I believe wood and glass.

       
What we’re left with, then, is a movie that seemingly has all the ingredients of a good film, yet still doesn’t quite jell. City of Ember has an interesting concept, a good cast, quality set design, and giant carnivorous moles, and yet something is missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. The last movie that left me feeling this way was 2005’s War of the Worlds. Neither bad nor good, but a movie you can take your kids to without deserving a visit from social services, I give City of Ember four blind, carnivorous, subterranean cows.

Now there’s an image. Yikes.