Review: Z for Zachariah
Ann (Margot Robbie) may be the last woman on earth. Some inexpicable disaster has stripped the planet of the majority of its population. The residual radiation is a constant peril, but Ann has managed to survive due to the location of the mountain valley on which her farm is built. Separated from its surroundings and equipped with its own weather system, it is a self-sustaining land which has protected the young woman from the fate that befell her preacher father and younger brother, both of whom felt bound by moral duty to seek out other possible survivors.
A year has passed since Ann was left on her own and, though she has a dog to keep her company, it is clear that she craves human contact. Her wish is granted with the arrival of John (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who sheds his self-designed protective suit and lets out an elated cry at discovering the radiation-free land. He is as startled by her presence as she is intrigued by his and their initial standoff gives way to friendship when, after he is sickened by polluted waters, she nurses him back to health. Bless this man, she prays; she needs for him to stay with her and be healthy.
A mutual attraction simmers though it is not without moments of discord. A research scientist who fled the safety of an underground bunker ("What I wanted from life wasn't there."), he applies his knowhow to improving their daily existence on the farmstead, suggesting they build a water wheel to generate electricity. The idea appeals until he mentions using the wood from the chapel her father built and preached in. She believes they wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for God, but John reasons that perhaps the chapel was placed there in order for them to rebuild, possibly even start a family.
John's remark prompts Ann to make an advance , which he gently refuses. They have all the time in the world, he says, but his acknowledgement of their attraction stirs something in the air. The next day, the scruffily handsome Caleb (Chris Pine) appears, having ventured out from the mine in which he was living after witnessing two men kill one another with their bare hands. John is wary of Caleb but the ever charitable Ann welcomes him into their home, and the emerging triangle proves increasingly untenable for all involved.
Based on the posthumously published novel by Robert C. O'Brien, Z for Zachariah reshuffles the Genesis narrative into a compelling chamber piece. There are several key changes from the novel - raising Ann's age past the jailbait mark, completely excising the escalating power play between Ann and John, and creating Caleb specifically for the film - but the film very much retains the thematic gist of O'Brien's tale. The alterations result in a richer character drama where it is not necessarily "science that sours the paradise," as Peter Ackroyd noted in his review of the novel for The Spectator, but rather the fundamental flaws in human circuitry.
Director Craig Zobel, whose last film Compliance was an unsettling account of the horrors of human behaviour, imposes a percolating tone that assures subtlety and humanism when the story could have easily veered into the melodramatic and caricaturish. That patience in storytelling may prove too much for viewers, but it is a remarkably controlled tack that speaks volumes about Zobel's confidence in Nissar Modi's screenplay and the capabilities of his cast.
Pine possesses a dangerous, daring glint in his eyes that is especially piercing during the pivotal nocturnal dip where the sexual tension and mutual suspicion between the three evolve from subtext into something far more pronounced and potentially threatening. Ejiofor is superb as the logician whose self-control is weakened by jealousy and roiling doubt. Robbie is convincing as Ann, whose sweet nature belies a formidable will. Her performance displays a new degree of emotional honesty that anchors the provocative, if occasionally flawed, Z for Zachariah.
Z for Zachariah
Directed by: Craig Zobel
Written by: Nissar Modi; adapted from the novel by Robert C. O'Brien
Starring: Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine
