Movies Reviews: City of Ember | Gil Kenan

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Published: 9 October 2008

Facing an apocalypse in the warm glow of ember

CITY OF EMBER
Directed by Gil Kenan
Certificate 12

BASED on the children’s novel by Jeanne DuPrau, this film is a classic fantasy quest by the people who brought the Narnia Chronicles to the big screen.
For those who have not come across the City of Ember books (I haven’t), the synopsis goes like this: Ember is a vast and sprawling underground city, whose construction teams decided it would last exactly 200 years.
Those who worked on the job left the city leaders a box which would open itself on a given day and tell them what to do when the apocalypse comes.
But the box was tossed into the back of a cupboard by a less than honest mayor and forgotten about. Now, as the lights start to fade and the food begins to run out in the glorious age of Ember, two children, Lina and Doon, are on a mission to save the city from its fate.
The pair act as Pied Pipers, trying to lead their fellow citizens to safety, but come up against a range of classic children’s story scallywags who stand in their way.
Bill Murray, Tim Robbins (pictured) and Maggie Smith bring the necessary star quality to this imaginative story. The sets are terrific and the costumes wonderful.
The care taken over the smallest details is the pay-off. And although occasionally the outcome of the story is so obvious it hurts, there is plenty to keep you amused while the key figures’ tales run their course.
For lovers of DuPrau’s collection of stories, it feels a faithful big screen adaptation, and will charm the early teens and tweenies it’s aimed at.

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