How I Live Now (2013)

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Country: UK

Movie Review: Scottish helmer Kevin Macdonald has been recognized through some interesting works, not only on fiction with “The Last King of Scotland” and “State of Play”, but also on documentary, his career’s basis foundation, with “Touching the Void” and “Marley”. The brand-new apocalyptic romantic drama “How I Live Now” is perhaps one of his weakest works in terms of story and structure, along with 2011 “The Eagle”. Based on Meg Rosoff’s novel with the same title, “How I Live Now” starts with high premises but gradually falls in derivative movements that make the world threat seem a walk in the fields on a sunny day. The film stars Saoirse Ronan in the role of Daisy, a lonely American teenager who struggles with the huge amount of thoughts that keep coming to her mind, and finally encounters her happiness in England when she falls in love with her cousin Eddie. Sadly, the quietness of countryside and peace that blooms from love, are suddenly shaken with a nuclear explosion that leads to their evacuation and separation. Without neglecting the camera work and all the beautiful and clear images pulled out by Macdonald, the film failed in terms of credibility, conveying a sort of lightness that didn’t combine at all with the terror and anguish that should be present in a case of this nature. Ronan didn’t please me much here, in her abrupt transformation from a non-confident girl to a brave fighter searching for love. I’ve seen much better within the same genre than the soft existential issues and tepid romanticism depicted in this useless drama.