Mythmaking in the movies has never enjoyed a more fruitful age than this present era of special effects. What’s missing, however, is the depth and subtly the filmmakers of the past could weave without easy access to glitter and glow. City of Ember, another Walden Media kid-lit adaptation, has all the ingredients needed to create a compelling myth. What it lacks is the patience to let it all simmer.
Ember, based on the book by Jeanne Duprau, begins as the Builders prepare humanity for the end. They have constructed Ember, a vast city, deep underground, to shelter the human race from an unnamed catastrophe. In a small parcel, they lock away a prepared set of instructions to lead the people out once enough time has passed. They set the parcel’s timer for 200 years, and as the years tick by, the parcel is passed down to each of Ember’s mayors, until by accident, the parcel is lost.
Now, the Builders are regarded as little more than legends, the timer on the box reached zero long ago, and Ember’s vast array of lights are beginning to flicker and go out.
It is Assignment Day; the day Ember’s young students will draw a job out of a hat and start a career. Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway) wants to work in the generator room. Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan) wants to be a messenger, and when her and Doon end up with jobs neither one likes, a trade suits both their desires—Lina accepts Doon’s messenger assignment, and Doon heads for the pipeworks.
The story unfolds against Doon’s obsession with learning the massive generator’s workings, and a tiny parcel Lina’s little sister Poppy discovers in the closet. Inside, Lina finds the Builders’ instructions, half-chewed by the precocious toddler, and she enlists Doon’s help to learn its secrets.
Differences between book and film always create a divide between any established fan base and the film’s audience. In this case, screenwriter Caroline Thompson (who also penned Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride) adds the character of Doon’s father Loris (Tim Robbins), who helps to elevate some of the thematic weight that takes the book 50 pages to convey.
Loris likes to build things when he’s not rambling off words of wisdom to his son. “Notice the things no one else notices,” Loris tells Doon, “and you’ll know the things no one else knows.” Though it may seem a tad cliché, it serves the narrative’s thematic direction: pursuit of the intended will and purpose entrusted to them by those who sought to protect them. “If you have proof, you have to pursue it!”
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