Directed by: Kevin Macdonald.
Written by: Jeremy Brock & Tony Grisoni & Penelope Skinner based on the novel by Meg Rosoff.
Starring: Saoirse Ronan (Daisy), Tom Holland (Isaac), George MacKay (Eddie), Harley Bird (Piper), Danny McEvoy (Joe), Anna Chancellor (Aunt Penn), Stella Gonet (Mrs. McEvoy), Des McAleer (Major McEvoy).
One
of the major trends in Young Adult novels right now is dystopias – from The
Hunger Games to Divergent and countless others, for some reason, teens seem to
like to read about a society that has gone into the crapper – especially if
there is a plucky heroine there to pull everyone out of it. The interesting
thing about How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff’s book and now Kevin Macdonald’s film
version is that it is not about a dystopian society, but perhaps shows the
beginnings of one. Also, while there is a heroine in the movie, I’m not sure
she’s all the plucky – or even likable for much of the movie.
The
movie stars the immensely talented Saorise Ronan as Daisy – an American
teenager who has been sent by her father and wicked stepmother across the pond
to stay with her British relations for the summer – at precisely the wrong
time. She’s never met her cousins before – or her Aunt, her long dead mother’s
sister – and she doesn’t much want to either. She’s an emo kid, miserable at
being sent away, and wants nothing to do with anyone or anything- even the fact
that her new home is in the idyllic British countryside cannot break her out of
her funk. When Daisy steps off the plane, she sees many people gathered around
TVs in the airport – there has been a terrorist attack in Paris – but even that
seems like less of an injustice than being sent to live with British people to
Daisy. Her Aunt is some sort of important diplomat, and she’s never around –
and takes off to Geneva only a few days after Daisy arrives to deal with the
looming crisis – leaving Daisy and her own kids – Eddie (George McKay) – around
16, Issac (Tom Holland), 14, and Piper (Harley Bird) – around 8 – all by
themselves with Daisy. And then London is hit with a nuclear bomb – and
everything falls into chaos.
How
I Live Now is a movie that sneaks up on you. At first the film appears like
it’s going to be a film about a troubled teenage girl, angry at the world, who
we expect will learn a lesson about not being quite so angry – and learning to
love life again. To a certain extent, that’s still true – but you wouldn’t
expect the film to take the twists it does – first when Eddie and Daisy fall in
love, despite the fact that they are cousins (you would think someone would be
creeped out by this, but apparently not) – and then as the war breaks out, and
the family is split apart – and Daisy discovers she’s a lot stronger than she
thinks she is. The whole movie is told from her point of view – we hear her
interior monologue of constant self-doubt before we see anything in the film,
but this gradually fades away. When the war breaks out – and the girls and boys
are split up, all of a sudden all the petty stuff she was concerned about falls
away – and she focuses on survival, and protecting her young cousin, and little
else. She can still be sullen and morose – and at times cruel to Piper – but
she does grow as the story progresses and by the end, she isn’t quite as self-involved.
Ronan
is very good in the lead role – it’s somewhat a departure for her, as normally
she specializes in playing young women who are smarter than most girls their
age (or in the case of Atonement, at least thinks she is). Here, she plays a
more typical sullen, teenager role – and she’s very good at the flat monotone
that somehow still conveys remarkable levels of hatred and disgust that only
teenage girls can deliver. As good as she is here though, I hope this is more
of a one off for her – Ronan is getting older (she’s 20 now), and has uncommon
skill for an actress her age – she doesn’t need to play sullen teenagers
anymore. As good as Ronan is here, and she’s very good, this is the type of
role many young actresses could play – something I don’t think I could say
about Ronan’s work in Atonement, The Lovely Bones or Hanna
The
movie gets darker as it goes along – much darker than one would expect for a
movie aimed at teenagers (but rated R because of the violence – some of it
disturbing, although none of it gratuitous or overly graphic). Like in his best
movies, Macdonald succeeds in placing the audience in the thick of action, and
slowly building the tension to a boil.
I’m
not sure I was overly satisfied with the way the movie ended. After all the
darkness the movie contains, it seems like the ending wanted to put a happy
ending on a movie that doesn’t need one – and when you think about, the ending
isn’t happy at all, despite how the Macdonald and company portray it. I wish
the filmmakers had pushed things farther than they do – and ended on a more ambiguous
or even downbeat note. That would have been more in line with everything that
had come before. As it stands, the movie works – but had they push things
further, it could have been much better.
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