There are movies where you automatically suspend belief to enjoy them - Godzilla, War of the Worlds , Star Trek. This is a movie following a similar trend. Maybe this is because ultimately this is adapted from a young adult novel and therefore lacks the coherency and demand for detail.
As an adult viewer I therefore found this an unsatisfactory view but not so unsatisfactory to stop viewing it until the end. However by the end I came away with the frustration of a weak and implausible storyline, inaccurate facts and a a lack of sympathy for the characters.
Some people on here rave about Saoirse Ronan but I really do not know why. Her character was initially unlikeable but in theory we should have grown to like her. I did not. There was no clear flow to her character improvements, rather there were sudden developments like her falling in love with her cousin (which was most disbelievable.) Her acting bought little to this character who could have been so richer. On the other hand she does nail the disinterest teenager very well.
The other supposed main character "Eddie" was frankly as flat as cardboard. I felt no empathy towards him and really was quite disappointed he was still alive at the end.
Given that I could not develop any feelings towards the two main characters this movie was doomed to fall flat.
The backdrop of a war was equally frustrating. I totally understand that the war was not the major feature of this ;'coming of age' movie.but it did need some credibility to it. Some form of bomb, possibly nuclear hits Paris. Clearly the country is already on heightened alert, given the military presence at the airport where Saoirse lands. These are adolescent children who really would know more about what was going on in the world than conveyed. Instead we are forced to believe that they live some lord of the flies existence. (The 14 year old driving the land rover out of London was highly improbable.) The build up to war is good. You do sense the tension caught in the late night telephone conversations the mother has and the snippets of information from the radio. Oddly the family don't seem to use a television much.
Then we get the nuclear explosion. This really annoyed me. We know that the family live a long way from London. Near the beginning the boy who picks Saoirse up from the airport says a bus takes 8 hours to get to their house. (Hint that these are American script writers as really they must mean coach.) SO they a probably 200+ miles from London and yet are hit by a substantial blast wave and hear the blast. Inverse square law suspended here. Oddly on the television we see news reports showing the fires with commentary that maybe 100s of thousands died. Given this is London that would imply a relatively small nuclear device as a megaton device would kill millions. Now I was prepared to forgive the blast wave error as it made a poignant visualisation point. However the immediate development of fall out was pathetic. Oddly the fall out was never seen or mentioned again.
There are hints this is a terrorist type attack yet later we hear that parts of the country are under enemy hands. At one point we do see the 'enemy' who look rather unsoliderish and ragtag. This and the speed of the 'invasion' are improbable to say the least.
The family (without adults) are evacuated (no rationale reason why.) And soon we discover the girls farming on a communal farm. Wow that was set up rather quick. Our lead female appears defeated already and submissive. There are hints of terrorism again with reference to poisoned water supplies which again is implausible given real life military history.
The rest of the film revolves around our American lass escaping with the young girl, seeing small snippets of a decaying society (all men are rapists apparently) and trying to return home. It really does not work and the fact that Eddie has lived and is found by them in the woods stretches plausibility.
In the end we are left with them living on the farm successfully. Seemingly the terrorists or invaders are giving them a wide berth? And we are meant to hope that Eddie finds himself eventually and they live as a new nuclear family.
Suspend belief, try to ignore the incest and the needless naked running through the forest dream scene and the unlikely ending and yes there are enjoyable parts of this film. But overall its weaknesses overshadow the noble attempt to convey modern war through a teenager's eyes.
As an adult viewer I therefore found this an unsatisfactory view but not so unsatisfactory to stop viewing it until the end. However by the end I came away with the frustration of a weak and implausible storyline, inaccurate facts and a a lack of sympathy for the characters.
Some people on here rave about Saoirse Ronan but I really do not know why. Her character was initially unlikeable but in theory we should have grown to like her. I did not. There was no clear flow to her character improvements, rather there were sudden developments like her falling in love with her cousin (which was most disbelievable.) Her acting bought little to this character who could have been so richer. On the other hand she does nail the disinterest teenager very well.
The other supposed main character "Eddie" was frankly as flat as cardboard. I felt no empathy towards him and really was quite disappointed he was still alive at the end.
Given that I could not develop any feelings towards the two main characters this movie was doomed to fall flat.
The backdrop of a war was equally frustrating. I totally understand that the war was not the major feature of this ;'coming of age' movie.but it did need some credibility to it. Some form of bomb, possibly nuclear hits Paris. Clearly the country is already on heightened alert, given the military presence at the airport where Saoirse lands. These are adolescent children who really would know more about what was going on in the world than conveyed. Instead we are forced to believe that they live some lord of the flies existence. (The 14 year old driving the land rover out of London was highly improbable.) The build up to war is good. You do sense the tension caught in the late night telephone conversations the mother has and the snippets of information from the radio. Oddly the family don't seem to use a television much.
Then we get the nuclear explosion. This really annoyed me. We know that the family live a long way from London. Near the beginning the boy who picks Saoirse up from the airport says a bus takes 8 hours to get to their house. (Hint that these are American script writers as really they must mean coach.) SO they a probably 200+ miles from London and yet are hit by a substantial blast wave and hear the blast. Inverse square law suspended here. Oddly on the television we see news reports showing the fires with commentary that maybe 100s of thousands died. Given this is London that would imply a relatively small nuclear device as a megaton device would kill millions. Now I was prepared to forgive the blast wave error as it made a poignant visualisation point. However the immediate development of fall out was pathetic. Oddly the fall out was never seen or mentioned again.
There are hints this is a terrorist type attack yet later we hear that parts of the country are under enemy hands. At one point we do see the 'enemy' who look rather unsoliderish and ragtag. This and the speed of the 'invasion' are improbable to say the least.
The family (without adults) are evacuated (no rationale reason why.) And soon we discover the girls farming on a communal farm. Wow that was set up rather quick. Our lead female appears defeated already and submissive. There are hints of terrorism again with reference to poisoned water supplies which again is implausible given real life military history.
The rest of the film revolves around our American lass escaping with the young girl, seeing small snippets of a decaying society (all men are rapists apparently) and trying to return home. It really does not work and the fact that Eddie has lived and is found by them in the woods stretches plausibility.
In the end we are left with them living on the farm successfully. Seemingly the terrorists or invaders are giving them a wide berth? And we are meant to hope that Eddie finds himself eventually and they live as a new nuclear family.
Suspend belief, try to ignore the incest and the needless naked running through the forest dream scene and the unlikely ending and yes there are enjoyable parts of this film. But overall its weaknesses overshadow the noble attempt to convey modern war through a teenager's eyes.