By ANDY GILCHRIST
Staff Writer
Post-apocalyptic young adult fiction is one of today’s most popular genres of storytelling. Books like The Hunger Games and The Host and their film adaptations have turned it from just another shelf at the bookstore into a multi-billion dollar industry. One of the most frequently used subplots of these stories is love in the time of war or disaster, used so often that it has almost become a cliché. As the world is ending, the two main characters stare deeply into one another’s eyes and profess their love for one another, oblivious of the people burning and screaming around them.
The post-apocalyptic romance has become so prevalent that it is almost too difficult to take seriously. That’s why the new film How I Live Now is a welcome surprise. While the film lays the groundwork for the romantic story early, it takes the later chaos and violence around the characters much more seriously. Police states, total anarchy, war rape, and piles of corpses are shown without a filter, exposing the audience to the real horrors of a dystopia. While this does create some questions about who the intended audience is, the film is overall a strong addition to an oversaturated genre.
In the not-too-distant future, Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) is an American teenager sent to live with her British cousins for the summer. A girl plagued by self-doubt, with the voices in her head heard by the audience, Daisy initially refuses to interact with her family at all, rarely leaving her room. However, Daisy slowly begins to come out of her shell and even begins to fall for her eldest cousin, Eddie (George MacKay). When Daisy is told to return to the U.S. after London is attacked with a nuclear device, she refuses, choosing to stay with her new family in England.
Soon though, the façade of living peacefully in the English countryside is shattered when Daisy and her cousins are taken by the U.K. military and forced into work camps after the country is placed into an emergency police state. The world literally turns grey and bleak for Daisy and her family, who vow to find each other again as soon as possible. When her camp is attacked, Daisy and her youngest cousin, Piper (Harley Bird), escape and try to find their way back to their house in the country. But they must face water and food shortages, violent soldiers, and their own fears and doubts to make it home.
How I Live Now separates itself from the rest of young adult post-apocalyptic fiction by paying close attention to just how depressing a dystopia would be in real life. The opening 45 minutes of the film, set at the family’s countryside home and its surrounding land, is shot with handheld cameras, jumping frantically around the moody Daisy and her upbeat cousins. But when their world ends and they are sent to work and military camps, the film becomes much more traditional, using longer tracking shots and mounted cameras.
While it initially seems as though the opposite would be more appropriate, the way the film is shot actually makes perfect sense. The wonder of Daisy’s new English home and family, the hope and that anything is now possible, is perfectly captured through the shaky cam shots. Conversely, the cold, miserable reality of the Police State is truly felt through the dolly and crane shots in scenes that are much more structured than the happier beginning. The bright colors and sunny setting of the first half are replaced with dull colors and constantly gray skies. Daisy and her cousins even wear grey jumpsuits as they work in order to underline the shift in tone.
Another smart aspect of the film is that the identity of the larger enemies, those attacking Britain, are never revealed. It’s heavily implied to be terrorists, not a foreign government, but an early shot of a TV displaying images from a bombed Paris suggest that this terrorist group is just as powerful as an invading army. They are never shown up close; the closest the audience gets to seeing them is a shot of several terrorist soldiers having taken over a border crossing, but they are shown from over 100 feet away. When such a disaster occurs in real life, the average person focuses on the survival of themselve
s and their friends and family, not who committed the attack. That’s the job of those higher up and since this is a film about how an average family deals with this conflict, it ultimately isn’t important who started it.
The only glaring problem that the film faces is the question over who it is intended for. Choosing to follow a family of children and teenagers instead of adults, the film initially seems to have been made for the young adult market. And yet, the film’s bravery in showing soldiers dragging away women to be raped, people dying in front of the main characters, as well as some brief sex and nudity, seem to alienate this film from such an audience. The film’s R rating, “for violence, disturbing images, language and some sexuality,” seem to suggest it’s a film for adults. But do adults want to watch a film about kids? By making a more serious young adult dystopian film than has been seen in some time, the filmmakers seem to have made it difficult to market their film to anyone.
How I Live Now is a dark, violent film about the real-life implications of living in a dystopian Police State. By making a film about teenagers trying to survive such a harsh new world and making it so merciless, the filmmakers have made a film that will be difficult to convince people to go see. But those who are brave enough to watch it will be in for a film that is unlike any that’s been released in some time.
