Fantastic Fest's closing night film was City of Ember, starring Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, as well as Saoirse Ronan & Harry Treadway as teen protagonists Lina and Doone. The short version of the premise is that humankind has destroyed the planet and gone underground to survive.
The "Builders" of Ember decided that humanity shouldn't know what had come before, so they constructed a habitable, underground city with an expected expiration date and made a time-locked a box with instructions for returning to the surface. They gave the box to the first Mayor, who would then pass it down across generations of Mayors. The box counts down over a period of 200 years until the box reaches zero and pops open. At one point along the line, the box became lost, and the story picks up forty years after the countdown finished.
Ember itself is in a state of disrepair and is running out of food, with frequent blackouts lasting longer and longer. Few give any thought to the possibility that the generator at the heart of the city would actually go all the way out. Those that think the always-reliable resource will go kaput keep quiet, fearing retribution. The guy in charge (Murray as the Mayor of Ember) frequently reassures everyone that they "are working on it" and they "must act now" but never to fear the worst. Sound familiar?
I know a couple of people who had seen it before I did who told me that they felt there was no ever-present danger or consequence to the movie, but I had exactly the opposite experience and enjoyed the whole thing. The ever-present danger for me was the real world around me having a more pessimistic outlook than the kids in the movie. Lucky jerk kids.
There are some chases and escapes in the film, and at a certain point, there are people out to get the protagonists, and I can kind of get other critics wanting to assail the level of peril in the movie, but maybe people should chill out on being armchair directors with this movie. The point the movie and the book it's based on makes is that those in charge over the years have gotten so habitually lazy that they don't try very hard unless an obstacle is right in front of them. At that point, they just do what they have to so they appear to be doing their job. Again, sound familiar?
This is not an "adult" post-apocalyptic thriller or anything, but it isn't "kiddy" either. This is not a reinvention of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi/fantasy film, but it is a vitally important cautionary tale for the climate we currently live in, especially in the US. I'll get more into the political overtones I felt in a moment.
As for the performances, the kids do fine, Saoirse Ronan in particular for not falling into the dialectical trap of a Brit "doing American". Bill Murray has gotten so effortless in turn after turn, it's not surprising how smoothly he falls into the oblivious and selfish Mayor's shoes to grand effect. Toby Jones (the "other" Capote) seems to have been warming up for his part as Karl Rove in Stone's W playing the Mayor's wingman. Martin Landau, Mary Kay Place, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Mackenzie Crook play smaller supporting parts that complete the picture nicely.
City of Ember as it has been adapted for the screen is based on the first in a closed-ended (according to the author) four book series. There is more to this story that needs to be told, and even though I'd like to see this extremely talented guy direct some of his own original ideas, I'd like to see him and his design team guide this series to its conclusion. This is the kind of "young people" book series I can get behind. I may actually read them all too.
I really enjoy this movie a great deal more than I already did after letting it simmer for a bit during the events of the last 48 hours. If I have a complaint that comes within striking distance of falling in line with the couple friends who felt like they'd "not gotten enough" out of it once the movie was over, it'd be that I wish this first movie in the (presumptive) series had been comprised of both the first and second books. The movie is fine for me on its own, I just want more. I don't suppose that's really a bad thing, though.
Director Gil Kenan and Bill Murray were both in attendance last night, and everyone was surprised that of all celebrity guests to pop in, it was the Most Reclusive Ghostbuster that showed. AICN's Kraken (Kristoffer Aaron Morgan) had the balls to ask if he was interested in a third Ghostbusters movie, and he responded in the affirmative. I couldn't make it to the Closing Night Party a mile underneath the ground in a cave to hang out with these guys, but I wish I could have, primarily to shoot the shit with Kenan.
So about the politics of why this movie is important at this point in history...
Fundamentally, the thematic thrust of the movie involves paying attention when things don't sound or feel right, pulling your head out of the sand, and doing the right thing.
If the last week hadn't rolled along as it has, with a major commercial bank failure (WaMu), people in Washington passing the blame around, and the same kinds of reassurance from the top we heard back in 2003 in the run-up to the Iraq conflict, I may have viewed this movie through a slightly different lens. The movie was shot a year ago, and has turned out more prophetic than I think Kenan and Playtone ever thought it would be.
There was no ever-present danger-danger in the "someone's out to get us", traditional sense, but instead I felt rather claustrophobic, like the city was caving in on the kids (and me by extension) just as the economy and the country seems to be crumbling at the moment. It reminds me of what my dad has told me has happened to Havana over the last five decades, complete with government-assigned professions "for the greater good" of a crumbling society.
Bear with me on this, but I think City of Ember stands the chance of being a part of the turning tide in this year's election.
Friends of mine who have been grassroots political operatives for years here in Texas will tell you that preaching to the other party's faithful is a waste of time and an error frequently made by local campaigns. The difference is only ever made in gently convincing the fence-sitters (never, ever bombard a swing voter). David Letterman may have broken down a barrier to these folks with his "something doesn't smell right" response to McCain's recent maneuvers around the following: the abiding financial crisis and the growing coverage of how it relates to his Keating 5 scandal from '91, the McCain 13/7 ratio of cars to houses, bad national poll numbers and swing states moving more solidly for Obama again, Palin's disastrous, nigh-incomprehensible interview with Katie Couric, and the apparently "back-on" debate tonight, his avoidance of which reminds me of something that happened in 2000.
Swing-voter parents taking their kids to City of Ember will watch a crumbling civilization as a result of inaction coupled with empty The People Come First promises. They'll see a leader refuse to address how he's going to fix things other than say he's on the job and focused on no one but them all while he's only intent on deflecting concern and covering his own ass.
In an era of Potters, Dark Materials, Eragon, and Twilight adaptations, City of Ember is the "young reader" series that really has something substantive to say about where we are as a society and more globally, as a species. That may not be what they have built the marketing campaign on, but it's the reason this movie will endure over time when other films being made for this audience will fade.