Z for Zacharia
A for Average.
And, um, ignore the byline, the review up at Channel 24 is actually by me, not Gabi.
And, um, ignore the byline, the review up at Channel 24 is actually by me, not Gabi.
What's it about
After
a cataclysmic event wipes out humanity, a young woman and two men try
to pick up the pieces of a fallen world as the last known survivors.
It's not long, however, before tensions mount and complicated
romances build.
What we thought
Named
after the last of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, Z for Zachariah
is an intriguing mix of religion, romance and visions of humanity's
end, played out first as an uneasy domestic drama before turning into
a PG-13 psycho-sexual thriller. It would be nice to say that it all
works but, sadly, for all of its ambitions, it never really comes
together.
I
haven't read the Robert O'Brien novel on which it is based, but it
does seem like the chief flaw of the film is that it makes a rather
strange departure from its source in what must be some sort of bid
for fans of YA dystopian fiction and gooey vampire novels.
Specifically,
Caleb, the character played by Chris Pine, does not appear in the
book, which is a two-hander between Margot Robbie's Ann Burden and
Chiwetel Ejiofor's John Loomis. He appears quite late in the story
and, however much I usually like Chris Pine, his character both
distracts from the central relationship, which is apparently quite a
bit more complicated and nastier in the novel, and moves the film in
a very unwelcome direction.
It's
a pity because before that, Z or Zacharia is a decidedly bleak but
unquestionably intriguing tale of the last would-be-couple on earth:
a naive farm girl and a much more circumspect alleged scientist.
Robbie and Ejiorfor are both excellent in their roles, with the
latter, in particular, bringing a real unnerving energy to a
character that becomes increasingly hard to trust - however much we
may want to.
It's
very much a slow-burn of a movie but the character dynamics are
compelling and its look at Christian faith in the wake of the
apocalypse is fascinating that may at times feel a little derivative
but, considering how old the novel is, that's pretty easily
forgivable. What's less forgivable is that the arrival of the
handsome, mysterious but rather bland Caleb causes the film to
abandon its less commercial but more intelligent and subtle tone for
something more on-the-nose. It's a fatal move that isn't even saved
by the sheer guts of its misanthropic and nihilistic denouement
Though,
of course, at this point, I for one am really kind of in the market
for a vision of our future that is a bit less grim.
Ultimately,
Z for Zacharia isn't a bad film by any means, as it is undoubtedly
well-acted, nicely shot and solidly mounted by indie director, Craig
Zobel, but it is a disappointing one that never quite matches its
ambitious vision and nicely written characters with a strong
narrative throughline.
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