Review of Z for Zachariah (2015) by Mark M — 02 Sep 2015

Adapted from Robert C. O'Brien's novel, Craig Zobel and Nissar Modi's Z for Zachariah loosely adapts the source material, with the most drastic change being the introduction of a third character that wasn't in the novel. Slowburn, almost methodological in his approach of the source material, nailing the tonal and atmospheric feel of the post-apocalyptic setting, the cause of which is never explicitly divulged, allowing the viewer to concoct their own idea of what had happened, and how the valley that Ann resides in being mysteriously safe from the dangers of radiation, a phenomenon that has the scientist Loomis baffled.

Zobel plays the dichotomy between Ejiofor's straight-laced, scientific Loomis and Robbie's religious country girl Ann against each other well, contributing to the early subtle creepiness of the 'blossoming' relationship between the two, including the real age of the two (Ejiofor is 38, Robbie is 25) lending to the visible gap in age of their characters. But when Z for Zachariah introduces Chris Pine's hunky, Southern drawl Caleb (a character that wasn't in the novel), the love triangle between the three and the overall creepiness becomes too on the nose with Caleb's function as a wedge between the two consisting primarily of over-the-top unsettling smirks and stares.

Like his character, Pine's presence in the Ejiofor and Robbie film feels naturally intrusive, yet both the latter remain the stars of Z for Zachariah, even if Ejiofor's work as the possessive Loomis doesn't quite reach the heights of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013), with the somewhat unrecognizable Robbie delivering her best, subdued performance to date following The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and Focus (2015). For better or worse, the cast is largely the highlight of Z for Zachariah, a film with no apparent payoff that instead explores loneliness, paranoia and man's innate longing for company, lest he be driven insane and reduced to a shell of a mad person amid the sweeping vistas of a quiet, vacant valley.