Slowly becoming aware that there are disturbing, dystopian views of the human future is a rite of passage for many older children. Families try to protect their offspring from darker worries, but sooner or later a curious 11-year-old picks up a copy of “1984” or “Brave New World” — or “An Inconvenient Truth,” for that matter. And then the questions and the quiet brooding may begin.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, as long as the contemplation doesn’t turn into a major funk about the future. News headlines alone can make children shrink in alarm: Dow plummets, terrorists lurk, world teeters on the brink of just about anything they can imagine. Pretending there are no challenges in coming decades is just as great a disservice as exposing the kids too soon.
Juvenile literature and the Hollywood movies that draw on it have become more creative in acknowledging this ‘tween and teen reality. Some avoid the “Twilight” melodrama with intelligent commentary on the way things are, and the way things could turn out to be. “The Golden Compass” was deep and thought-provoking, a thinking-kids’ “Harry Potter.”
But another overlooked recent movie adapted an impressive dystopian book, and “City of Ember” deserves your consideration.
Ember is an underground city whose power source is gradually dying, long after some unnamed cataclysm forced humans underground. The society is well-run and humane, but has its dark edges and unexplained secrets. Young teenagers are initiated into new jobs on the power grid or in the plumbing system, and two protagonists join early in the film to explore Ember’s puzzling past.
The film will raise fascinating questions about human ingenuity in the face of man-made or natural disaster. Can intelligence and faith overcome the tendency of things and people to fall apart? How much can humans adapt to altered states? How do you pass on technical knowledge from one generation to another, and is that knowledge any good without wisdom to accompany it?
Rated: PG, for themes of human frailty and danger.
Best suited for: kids over 10 who may have heard about global warming, the BP spill disaster, or other threats to the planet.
