“CITY OF EMBER”
Starring Harry Treadaway
& Saoirse Ronan
Released: Oct. 10, 2008

WATCH THE TRAILER

A beautifully rendered and exciting adaptation of an equally amazing book.

"The City of Ember" (2003) by Jeanne DuPrau is one of my favorite books.

When I heard that they were making a movie version, I had mixed feelings about it. After being disappointed by the recent film adaptations of "The Golden Compass" and the fifth Harry Potter installment (two more books that I count among my favorites), I had become convinced that all movies based on books are worse than their source material.

The film version of "City of Ember," I concluded, would surely follow the same pattern.

I went to see it with my younger brother, who is also a big fan of the book. Neither of us had very high expectations for the movie, although to my brother's credit he convinced me to see it in the first place, since I doubt I would have bothered otherwise.

"Let's go see 'Body of Lies' instead," I suggested. "This movie's going to suck."

I was wrong. Not only was the movie "City of Ember" just as good as the book, it was even better. My brother and I were hooked from the very first scene, in which we are told about an underground city named Ember being sealed off from the outside world.

A mysterious locked box with a timer on it is given to the city's first mayor, who is told to open it after 200 years have passed. Each mayor's successor receives the box and its secret in turn — at least, until the seventh mayor dies unexpectedly before he has a chance to tell anyone about it. The box is placed into storage and forgotten, until the day when it quietly clicks open.

After that ominous introduction, we are introduced to Doon Harrow (Harry Treadaway), who is about to graduate from school.

In Ember, the last day of school is marked by a special ceremony where the children draw a job name out of a box, which determines what job they will have for the rest of their lives. Doon really wants the job of electrician's assistant, which would allow him to work in the mysterious Generator, the machine that provides all of Ember's power.

It turns out that the Generator has been failing recently, causing citywide blackouts that terrify the populace. Ember is different from other cities in that there is no natural light, no sun or moon, so during the blackouts the darkness is absolute. Doon is obsessed with finding out what is causing the blackouts.

After Doon heads off to the ceremony, we meet Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan), an excitable, vibrant girl who seems to know everyone in the city.

She wants the job of messenger, but oversleeps and has to sneak in late to the ceremony with the help of her friend, Lizzie (Lucinda Dryzek). Overseeing the ceremony is the overweight, self-obsessed current mayor of Ember (Bill Murray).

Doon and Lina each draw the job that the other one wants, and Doon insists that they switch. Lina, who can't understand why anyone would give up being a messenger to work in the dirty labyrinth of below-ground tunnels known as the Pipeworks, is intrigued by this strange boy.

As the blackouts become longer and more frequent, and Ember begins to run out of food, Lina begins to share his obsession with finding out why their city is falling apart.

One of the first things I noticed while watching the movie was that the cast looked like normal people. Neither Doon nor Lina seems to fit the role of typical Hollywood child actors, who tend to be picked more for their cuteness than for acting ability.

Both actors here were not pretty, but they nailed their characters perfectly. I appreciated that they looked normal, because it made the film seem more realistic and gritty. Bill Murray also did extremely well as the greedy mayor, although his role was not as big as it could have been.

Action scenes in the book were few and far between, and a large portion of the middle is devoted to Lina's attempts to decipher the box's contents. In the movie, the director made the decision to add a few more moments of cinematic glitter, most notably a giant mole-like monster that chases the kids through the Pipeworks.

Under some circumstances I might have been angry about this, but here it worked. I actually found myself wanting the movie to be longer, something that happens very rarely.

Most other reviews of this movie uniformly panned it, saying that it "bored kids" and was "downright grim." I have to disagree. Those who haven't read the book might find the plot a bit difficult to follow, and those who prefer sight gags and cute talking animals should opt for "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" instead.

But for anyone who loved the book, this movie is a must-see. "City of Ember" is definitely in my top five movies of the year.

"City of Ember" is currently playing at the Goodrich Savoy 16, 232 W. Burwash, Savoy, and the Beverly 18, 910 Meijers Drive, Champaign.

"City of Ember" AT A GLANCE

• Starring: Harry Treadaway, Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Toby Jones
• Directed by: Gil Kenan
• Written by: Caroline Thompson
• Genre:Adventure, Family, Fantasy
• Rated: PG
• Runtime: 95 min.
• Release date: Oct. 10, 2008
• Summary (from IMDb): For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing … and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker.