“When you’re a teenager, falling in love feels like the end of the world.” Or so I imagine the pitch session for How I Live Now, a British indie that blends post-apocalyptic SF with fairly conventional YA romance. Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) is a bratty American kid, obsessed with the surface trivia of teenaged life, when she’s sent against her will to spend a summer with extended family in England. She’s determined not to enjoy her stay, but gradually she begins to find her new life charming, thanks to her fun-loving cousins Piper (Harley Bird), Isaac (Tom Holland), and especially Eddie (George MacKay), with whom she begins an intoxicating, forbidden romance. Her newfound happiness is short-lived, however, when terrorists detonate a nuclear device in London, triggering World War III. Left to their own devices, the kids hole up to survive the ensuing chaos, but when martial law is declared, the war soon encroaches on their peaceful corner of the universe and separates the young lovers.
It’s a confidently made, perfectly watchable film thanks to high production values and Ronan’s impressive presence; she does have uncommon gravitas for an actor so young. Alas, Ronan’s charisma must make up for the character’s innate unlikability; it’s not a fatal flaw, since a coming-of-age transformation is part of her journey, but definitely a barrier. More problematic are the genre elements of the story, specifically the romance and the SF. The Daisy-Eddie relationship, so crucial to the plot, is rather rushed and ultimately sparkless. Similarly unconvincing is the apocalyptic war scenario, a vague and hand-wavy conflict that doesn’t ring authentic. Without being able to buy into either the romance or the SFnal world-building, all that’s left to carry the film are its pretty surfaces and, more importantly, its survival story aspects. Those go some distance to making the viewing moderately worthwhile, but not nearly far enough to warrant a more enthusiastic recommendation.
