Review of How I Live Now (2013) by Thegodfatherson — 11 Nov 2013

Nonetheless, I generally enjoyed How I Live Now. Its story offers an intriguing and unique angle on a classic YA theme. It features some striking visual moments, and a hard-earned message of hope and perseverance.

But Macdonald seems out of his depth directing a kid-centered drama, and the characters suffer, coming off as archetypes (the dream boy, the nerdy brother, the obnoxious little sister) or never quite coming together at all.

It's a difficult thing translating a book that is told in the voice of a character to a film where most of her internal monologue is stripped away. And it's a shame that so much was stripped away that How I Live Now's heroine seems barely there at all.