Director: Craig Zobel Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Margot Robbie, Chris Pine Writer: Nissar Modi | 3/5 Z for Zachariah Robert C. O’Brien’s 1974 novel ‘Z for Zachariah’, about a religious teenage girl who revives and befriends a scientist in a barren, radioactive wasteland, has built around it a solid cult following and has helped plant the seed for today’s obsession with teens and post-apocalyptic worlds. With that said, fans of the original novel or Katniss Everdeen may want to stay far away from Craig Zobel’s new adaptation. The film plays like an intentional antithesis to those stories. Nobel makes changes from small and inconsequential (Anne is now a woman) to massive and damning (there’s a completely new male character added). Was it worth the narrative risk? I say no. ‘Zachariah’ wins major points for its engrossing and far superior first half. We meet Ann, played with touching innocence by ‘Wolf of Wall Street’’s Margot Robbie, after the film’s wordless first five minutes. Radiation has ended human life on Earth, but the mountain valley in which Ann lives has been untouched. We get some moving, juxtaposing images of a ghost town and the beautiful mountain ranges (filmed in New Zealand). Most poignant of all is the sight of a barren church, which factors greatly into the plot, set in front of a towering green mountain. |
That’s why it is so sad that the second half falls apart into nothing. With the addition of a new male named Caleb, played by Chris Pine, ‘Zachariah’ goes from being unpredictable and loaded to unsurprising and rote. As soon as Caleb is introduced, the story immediately becomes about the love triangle and the overused feelings of male jealousy and male dominance. A pissing contest between John and Caleb may be the most unsatisfying way Zobel could have possibly ended his film. He took an original novel, cast some stellar talent, got things off to an artistic, promising foot, and then fumbled big time by steering his ship into ‘Twilight’ territory. Huge mistake.
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