City of Ember (2008)

Director:

Gil Kenan

Writers (WGA):

Caroline Thompson (screenplay)
Jeanne Duprau (book)

Release Date:

10 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Discover The Secret

Plot:

For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing ... and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker.

Plot Keywords:

Message | Box | Escape | Steampunk | Graduation

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

David Ryall	...	Chief Builder
Ian McElhinney	...	Builder
Harry Treadaway	...	Doon Harrow
Tim Robbins	...	Loris Harrow
Bill Murray	...	Mayor Cole
B.J. Hogg	...	Mayor's Guard
Toby Jones	...	Barton Snode
Lucinda Dryzek	...	Lizzie Bisco
Matt Jessup	...	Joss
Lara McIvor	...	Roner
Myles Thompson	...	Smat
Eoin McAndrew	...	Student #1
Rachel Morton	...	Student #2
Conor MacNeill	...	Student #3
Lorraine Hilton	...	Miss Thorn

Also Known As:

Cidade das Sombras (Brazil) (DVD title) (Portugal) [pt]
La cité de l'ombre (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Apodrasi apo ti hameni poli (Greece) [el]
City of Ember - En busca de la Luz (Spain) [es]
Ember - Il mistero della citta' di luce (Italy) [it]
Ember - La ciudad perdida (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]
Grad svjetla (Croatia) [hr]
Mesto Ember (Czech Republic) [cs]
Sihirli sehir (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Szikraváros (Hungary) [hu]

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild peril and some thematic elements.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #43559) | Ireland:PG | UK:PG | Singapore:PG | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Hong Kong:IIA | Australia:G | Czech Republic:U | South Africa:10M | Canada:G (Manitoba/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | France:U | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Belfast Methodist College, Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Company:

Playtone

Trivia:

When Doon gets his first glimpse of the generator, the camera views it from our perspective instead. Director Gil Kenan did it this way because Doon acts as our eyes and it conveys to us the importance of the generator to his city and our story.

Goofs:

Continuity: After Doon and Lizzie jump through the hole and run away to escape from the giant mole, Lizzie suddenly is wearing a miners helmet. In the succeeding scene the helmet is gone again.

Quotes:

Doon Harrow: Sul, what are you doing up here?
Sul: This thing is jammed stuck. I've gotta free it.
Doon Harrow: How do you know that's what you should do?
Sul: [pause] It's my job!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "At the Movies: (2008-11-26)" (2008)

City of Ember

Having just taken 129 eighth-graders who read the book to see the premiere, everyone left the theater disappointed with what director Kil Kenan and screenwriter Caroline Thompson have given us with this translation from the page to the screen. Thompson, an accomplished screenwriter, deserves more of the blame in their (and my) opinion.

Books rarely translate better to film and this one suffers for many reasons. Jeanne DuPrau's book is an amazing trove of metaphors (candles, the library, the seed, the Pipeworks, and the city itself). When works of literature work on multiple levels, the filmmakers should at least offer us more than one. In fact, this book could be a metaphor for metaphors -- there are things below the surface that exist whether we acknowledge them or not; it is our job to find the tools to excavate the "deeper" level of what exists for others only on the surface.

Having sacrificed the novel's intellectual depth, the film version does a great disservice to the dedicated reader: we are given special effects that defy logic and re-focus the story unnaturally and unnecessarily; there are included scenes of hyped-up action they are neither satisfying nor helpful with advancing the plot; we lose some of the intricate details of character development; there's an unnecessary inclusion of giant scary creatures that offer distracting (and bizarre) thrills; and the mystery of what Ember is is destroyed in the first minute of narration.

The design of the film is great, but as in design, the beauty is found in the details. I believe that the greatest details of the book are missing, hidden away like the people of Ember. Let them come into the light!