Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sennia Nanua, Glenn Close, Paddy Considine, Dominique Tipper, Anamaria Marcinca, Anthony Walsh, Lobna Futers, Fisayo Akinade.
The Girl With All The Gifts, the latest in a long line of Zombie apocalypse films that scream for attention and makes use of the fear that has invaded our thoughts in the last century; yet this contribution to the horror genre is not one that has the usual suspects running the show, this is the calm and fire all in one body, one who can save us but also tear us apart. It is a film that allows the cinema goer room to breathe but one that asks it not to, to take a large deep breath and keep in until the guts are about to burst.
The star of the film is undoubtedly the new face on the film block, the enchanting Sennia Nanua who portrays the hope that only a young child can bring with great sensitivity and who even acts the ever impressive Glenn Close completely of the screen. As the film progresses, the feeling of unease surrounding her character Melanie is such that you cannot help but feel the small pricks of needles being pushed into your skin, the cry for help in the pit of your stomach and the huge gestured nods to the past in films such The Day Of The Triffids and Children of the Damned actually more in keeping with the narrative than your usual Zombie cinematic encounter.
Whilst the setting through the devastated and fungus ridden streets of London are perfectly envisaged, the sight of the one of London’s more eye catching landmarks covered in spores and almost rivalling the moment in the original The Planet Of The Apes when The Statue of Liberty rises out of the desert sand, the story line begins to wander, it wants to go into full blown dystopia but pulls back, arguably recklessly, to a point where the end of the film mirrors the start; it becomes too cosy and lets down Sennia Nanua’s sterling work throughout.
A good film, one that asks the disturbing question of what is actually morally right when it comes to saving the Human Race when it is under attack, however it is one that ultimately comes undone in its own race for perfection.
The Girl With All The Gifts was such that it could have offered a deeper and more harrowing perspective but in the end is still an enjoyable romp into the psyche of humanity’s deep fear, that our mind is not our own, that our actions are betrayed and the thought of survival becomes primeval and shockingly modern at the same time.
Ian D. Hall