How I live Now (Kevin MacDonald – 2013)

It wasn’t my kind of movie… Obviously, World War 3 and teenage love… not my cup of tea.

But I have to say I was touch by this movie. The story is quite simple, and I think I could resume it in 2 sentences : An American girl, Daisy, is send on holiday in the English countryside by her father. She meets her aunt and cousins for the first time, but what could have been paradise for this troubled girl become hell as she finds herself fighting for her survival as the third world war breaks out.

Saoirse Ronan (Daisy) and George MacKay (Edmund)

Yes, the story is simple, but the situation is so real… When you watch the News, World War 3 is not that impossible. The interest of this movie is that it shows individuals fight for survival. It’s not the soldiers, it’s not even the adults, it’s children – because at 16 you’re still a child in so many way – who try to survive alone, and who become adults in the harshest way. 

Filmed in Wales, the film gets the advantage of wonderful landscapes who have a taste of paradise (I know, I love Wales, but I am sure the director doesn’t pic this country by chance…). Like Daisy, you are caught by the Eden, by this simple and easy life in the country side. But, quickly all hell breaks loose and the film become the portrait of a rebellious girl becoming a woman. She does what it has to be done, and the teenage passion became an adult love as her way to survive is going back to the paradise and to Edmund. 

Special mention for Harley Bird, who play the youngest cousin Piper… It’s such a harsh part for a little girl, but she is perfect and her chemistry with Saoirse Ronan is fundamental for the movie. I enjoy seeing again George MacKay ( I have discovered him in an amazing Welsh movie, Hunky Dory, and I am eager to see more of him in the future). Saoirse Ronan carries most of the movie on her shoulders and she is wonderful.

Saoirse Ronan (Daisy) and Harley Bird (Piper)

Now, what could I add ? One thing maybe, which prove that I have really enjoyed this movie, that I have to read the book which has inspired it as soon as possible. Is Meg Rosoff’s story has catching as the movie ? I hope so… I will tell you, promise.

directed by Kevin MacDonald, adapted from Meg Rosoff’s novel by  Jeremy Brock, Tony Grisoni and Penelope Skinner.

with Saoirse Ronan (Daisy), George MacKay (Edmund), Tom Holland (Isaac), Harley Bird (Piper) and Anna Chancellor (Aunt Penn).