City of Ember

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

Underrated, enjoyable post-apocalyptic fantasy family flick. After a devastating world war, mankind retreated underground with the hopes of once returning to the surface. Hundreds of feet below ground, the City of Ember was constructed as a safe house to the last remnants of humanity, its lights kept running by huge machinery. However, after several generations had passed, the descendants of the original survivors forgot about their origin and the world above, while the technology keeping them alive slowly degraded, threatening to leave them in everlasting darkness. Superb child actress Saoirse Ronan (nominated for an Oscar for Atonement) stars as young Linda Mayfleet, a girl driven by curiosity and intelligence who wants to fight off the imminent undoing of her home town and the corruption of Ember's greedy Mayor (Bill Murray once more excels at playing a scumbag) and his sinister henchmen, but is confronted on the one hand by narrow minded doctrine stating Ember is all there is, and on the other by giant men-eating mole creatures (making this movie a tad too scary for younger kids). The film sports a tremendously exciting look, almost making Ember itself a living, breathing entity, but we get to explore this ingeniously crafted world less than we would want in exchange for a fairly typical coming-of-age story about kids fighting the older generation's strict rules that seek to keep them mentally chained, breaking loose in the worn out 'follow your heart' style. Still, the delightful fantasy tones of this oft neglected film make for a pleasant surprise to those who bother to check it out.

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, Toby Jones

Directed by Gil Kenan

USA: Walden Media, 2008