BEFORE: At this point last year, I was done with the romance chain, and I was deep in a Liam Neeson block that was leading up to a St. Patrick's Day film. So this year's chain is a few films longer, and I'm going to hit a romance film on St. Patrick's Day, one that is Irish-themed. And this year I've only seen ONE Liam Neeson film so far, last year I had like nine in a row during March, and only ONE took place in Ireland, so you know, I'll do whatever it takes to make my chains line up with all the big holidays.
Chris Pine carries over from "Small Town Saturday Night".
THE PLOT: In the wake of a disaster that wiped out most of civilization, two men and a young woman find themselves in an emotionally charged love triangle as the last known survivors.
AFTER: I'm posting late, because this is the Sunday film and it's already Monday - I had to work all day so I missed watching the Oscars live, came home exhausted but after an iced coffee I had a bit more energy. Enough to watch "Tournament of Champions" on Food Network with my wife - well, priorities, right? So I didn't have the energy for the Oscars, not even on fast-forward. I'll post my Oscar night thoughts tomorrow - right now everything is a four-way or five-way tie and we'll get there, it's just going to take me some more time.
Let me deal with "Z for Zachariah" first, it's kind of odd and I don't even understand why the movie is named that because there's no character in the film with that name. For that matter, there are only three actors, so I think this one's going to win a Honky at MY award ceremony in December, for the film with the smallest cast. Yes, that's an award category for me, but there's also one for LARGEST cast, also shortest movie, longest movie, oldest movie, newest movie, best sequel, best prequel, best heist, best murder mystery and best destination wedding. Nowadays we also have best movie that I worked at a screening of, best Thanksgiving movie, best prison movie, best alien invasion movie, best LGBTQ film and best time travel film. It's a lot, I know, but now I'm keeping track of every little subject during the year so it won't take me a week to write that post in December.
OK, a contender this year for best post-apocalypse film is probably going to be this one, set in a time after some vast but unspecified disaster, based on the radiation suits and the fact that the people who survived were underground, let's assume it's a nuclear disaster of some kind. Iran got their nuclear program running again, or North Korea sent missiles to Seattle, honestly it doesn't much matter, but with the recent news events, come on, anything is possible and this one maybe hits just a bit too close to home. There is, however, still a valley that has been unaffected by the disaster, and a woman lives there with her dog and her family farm and she's getting by. She can't use the tractor because it's out of gas, and she's got no electric power, but she's got a clean well and some chickens so she's getting by.
Into her world comes a man in a radiation suit, he'd been in an underground bunker for years (?) and finally had to get out of there or else he'd go crazy. He'd apparently traveled hundreds of miles to get there, and he depends on medicine to keep him alive, but relatable, right? Unforunately he's so happy to be out and about in nature, he bathes in a creek, without realizing that the water in it is coming in from the outside world, so he gets radiation poisoning. Fortunately Ann and her dog find him and bring him back to her house, and she nurses him back to health. He repays her by helping out around the farm, helping her get gas from the pumps even though there's no power, and she can get the tractor running again. He also has a plan to build a water-wheel to generate electricity, but to do that he'll need to use the wood from the chapel her father built, and Ann's not crazy about this plan.
NITPICK POINT: in many scenes you can see a bunch of fences that have been built around the farm, why not use THAT wood for the water wheel? It's not like you need fences to keep all the people who are not coming around out of the farm...
But now comes the reason I've included this film here - even though they are different people and somewhat at odds with each other (he's a man of science, she's a woman of religion) they grow together simply by spending time together and working toward a common goal. So they killed off our cities and they killed off technology, but they couldn't kill the mismatched couple who falls in love despite disagreeing on so many things. They've got wine and they've got music, so naturally one thing leads to another, and one night they cuddle, but the really hot and heavy stuff, well, it's going to take some time. Maybe John's got some issues.
But one day another person shows up, he's got a back story about mining and watching a group of men go crazy underground, and he's been drifting around for a while, but really all he wants is some clean water and a night's rest, then he'll be heading down to the coast where he thinks there's a settlement, people are broadcasting on the radio calling out for survivors. Maybe it's real, maybe it's a trap, who knows? But Ann says the Christian thing to do would be to take Caleb in, feed him and let him stay for a while, not realizing that even if these are the last three people left alive on earth, there's still the possibility for a complicated love triangle. Sure, love triangles and cockroaches will for sure survive any apocalypse.
John sees the attraction building between Ann and Caleb, to the point where he's ready to bow out of the situation, I guess it's partially a racial thing, Caleb grew up a few towns away so he and Ann kind of have a shared history, and they can "be white people together", as John says. But John still needs Caleb's help to build that water wheel, plus they hunt wild turkeys together, so it's an uneasy alliance perhaps, but these three people kind of need each other to survive. John clearly has love for Ann, but did he miss his shot? Or did he only have a shot because he was the only man around? Ann still comes to John at night, but one night John is too drunk and fast asleep, so she turns to Caleb instead.
I won't say a word here about how it ends, because it's a pretty good conundrum, based on that mental game we all play about about thinking about the end times, what would it be like if there were just a few people left and you had to think about maybe repopulating the planet, would you make different choices, would love still even be part of the picture, or would having babies take priority over that? Would the few survivors live like hermits, or would social skills be more vital than ever before? Would people settle down and work the land or just travel around like nomads? Would the fall of human society be an excuse to live recklessly and lawlessly, or would people still follow the rules of the past and commit to each other and try to live in harmony together, as hard as that would be? Would the few people left head out to the country to live a quiet life and work the land because that would produce the best results, or would that be done only because the cities were filled with radiation, destroyed buildings and piles of dead bodies?
Anyway, we're kind of left with more questions than answers tonight, but they're kind of important questions. This future society might be a lawless one, and life would be just another commodity when resources are tight, people have to fight for supplies and survival, and lying to each other would just be par for the course. More to the point, if you strip down the basic apocalypse story, take away the fancy special effects and the politics and just focus on the survivors and the possible recovery, this is kind of what you get - at least it's interesting.
Directed by Craig Zobel (director of "The Hunt", "Compliance")
Also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (last seen in "Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy"), Margot Robbie (last seen in "Barbie").
RATING: 6 out of 10 missing eggs
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