City of Ember
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Directed by: Gil Kenan
Starring:
Harry Treadaway - Doon Harrow
Saoirse Ronan - Lina Mayfleet
Bill Murray - Mayor Cole
Tim Robbins - Loris Harrow
Toby Jones - Barton Snode
Martin Landau - Sul
Mackenzie Crook - Looper
The best character in City of Ember is the City of Ember. The closest comparison I can make to any previous design is the videogame Bioshock with its post-collapse art-deco style. Of course, you won't find any Big Daddies or splicers roaming the streets of Ember but you won't find much of anything that's interesting or new as far as characters go. Director Gil Kenan has created a magical city and populated it with people that are all purpose but no personality.
Ember is dying and while most citizens are content to whisper its eventual demise rather than actively demand a solution, Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway) and Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) know that the city is at its end. While Doon tries to find a way into the generator which he's sure he can fix, Lina stumbles on a 200-year-old box that contains directions for how to escape from Ember after its 200 years have expired. As the two lead characters, Doon and Lina are actions without motives. If you asked me to describe their personalities, I couldn't because they don't exist. It's not enough to simply take two people and put them on an adventure; you have to care about their fate.
If Kenan had put half as much energy into his leads as he did into designing this city, City of Ember would be a gem of a film. While I'll always prefer my family films to be more in the vein of a movie like Ember as opposed to last weekend's box office lead Beverly Hills Chihuahua, they both have little regard for the audience. While Chihuahua just thinks your kids are stupid (and if they wanted to see that flick, they're probably not too bright and this reminds me that I must get back to work on my screenplay for Shiny Objects), Ember forgot your entire family and turned inward to focus on the mechanics and history of its beautifully detailed city.
While Ronan and Treadaway are up-and-coming young actors who are simply denied meaty roles here, even the recognizable members of the cast don't have much to do. Tim Robbins and Martin Landau probably have twenty minutes of screen-time between them. At least with his limited role as the city's mayor, Bill Murray injects personality into his predictably corrupt official because oddly enough, even though Robbins and Landau may have Oscars, Murray knows how to be captivating no matter the size and scope of the part.
City of Ember isn't a bad movie but there's nothing beneath its beautiful exterior. While Ronan and Treadaway put a lot of energy into their characters, there's just nowhere for that energy to go other than moving the story forward. And when the city is more interesting than its citizens, it's hard to care about their survival.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
10.9.08