by Doris E Rufli

Created on: October 19, 2008

Not the most memorable movie but well worth seeing nonetheless. After all, it is a coming of age' feature directed at mainly young audiences without so much as talking down to or at anyone, no matter what their age or demeanour.

After the initial prestory, City of Ember opens in the house of inventor Loris Harrow (Tim Robbins) and his coming of age son Doon (Harry Treadaway) who is not very taken by his gadget driven dad. Doon's main ambition is to become an electrician in the up and coming job draw (literally!) in order to help fix the failing Generator which is essentially the life source of the underground city of Ember.

Mayor Cole (Bill Murray) who is meant to make sure that all people are safe and cared for is, however, a typical politician looking out for himself only while pretending to be the benefactor to all citizens. He is surrounded by those hoping to gain for their own benefit such as his personal guard (B.J. Hogg), personal lackey (Toby Jones) and the main distributor of food, Looper (Mackenzie Crook).

Lina Mayfleet (Saoirse Ronan Oscar nominated actress for Atonement) lives with her demented grandmother (Liz Smith) and younger sister Poppy (Amy & Catherine Quinn) in the house of her ancestors. Granny's great-great-grandfather was the seventh Mayor of Ember who actually knew that the underground city was only meant to exist for 200 years after which a certain box now lost was due to open and provide the citizens with instructions on how to reach the by then hopefully less polluted and life sustainable surface of the planet.

Lina is late arriving at the graduation / job distribution and picks the profession of pipe maintenance out of the bag which she less than cares for. Doon, on the other hand, is due to become a messenger worlds away from his dream of working as an electrician in the generator room which he had set all his hopes upon. He does try to switch with one of his former classmates but is less than successful, though ends up exchanging job prospects with Lina who is all too happy and eager to work as a messenger. After all, she knows pretty much everyone by name and is wellliked in return, contrary to the broody Doon who is much better suited using his hands to fix things' rather than running from one end of town to the other delivering messages between people.

Lina eventually comes across the mysterious box, courtesy of her ailing grandmother literally taking their remaining furniture apart in search of it and little Poppy having found and playing with its contents. However, before the young messenger can find out what Granny knows about the box though cannot really remember in the state she is in, the old woman dies in her sleep. It is now up to Lina and Doon to figure out what to do while at the same time avoid capture by the corrupt Mayor and his henchmen, finding allies in the most unlikely places along the way.

The likes of wellestablished actors such as Martin Landau, Tim Robbins and Bill Murray always providing brilliant performances as well as creative newcomers Saoirse Ronan and Harry Treadaway offer a solid basis for City of Ember. The screenplay (by Caroline Thompson) based on a book (by Jeanne Duprau) and directed by Gil Kenan add their own aspects to this underground adventure that turns out to be interesting to experience, particularly with some unexpected twists and turns mixed into the process.

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