Review of How I Live Now (2013) by Panta O — 02 Feb 2014

Interesting British futuristic drama based on the 2004 novel of same name by Meg Rosoff, directed by Kevin Macdonald and script written by Tony Grisoni, Jeremy Brock and Penelope Skinner. Nice casting of the stars Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Anna Chancellor, George MacKay, Corey Johnson and Sabrina Dickens.

The story of Elizabeth or Daisy (Saoirse Ronan), a neurotic but strong-willed New York City teenager, starts with her arrival to the English countryside for the summer to stay with her British cousins, Edmond (George MacKay), Isaac (Tom Holland) and Piper (Harley Bird). A political crisis across the world is worsening, and people are worried. Although initially reluctant to interact with her cousins, Daisy finds herself warming up upon learning that her deceased mother used to stay there frequently. She also falls in love with Eddie, her eldest cousin, finding him to be as introverted and strong-willed as her. A few days after her arrival, her aunt flies to Geneva to attend an emergency conference, and the group take advantage of her absence to explore their local woodlands... but things quickly change!

I enjoyed the realistic view of the future conflict... there was no CGI enhanced futuristic looks, extreme weapons, glorifying killers as heroes... just war as ugly as it is! Needless to say, Soirse Ronan is on her usual excellent form here as paranoid, super-sensitive Daisy, and there's strong support from Bird and Holland, while Chancellor is good enough for you to miss her when she disappears. The director Kevin Macdonald was very elegantly conveying the gradual impact of global events on the family's remote location - from background television reports everyone ignores to hushed phone calls involving Aunt Penn, and eerily, distant sounds of a nuclear explosion, followed by a snowfall of white dust hours later. He created such depressingly bleak atmosphere throughout that I got fully into it... especially when he introduces chilling imagery, a pile of bodies at one of the labour camps.

First two parts of the movie were well balanced and exciting but there is a big flop when there should be biggest excitement! Somehow, there was a lack of emotional connection and you could feel it. Still, I will suggest to see it if you have some spare time. Very watchable and most of the time enjoyable.