Paddy Considine in army uniform, but it’s not Dead Man’s Shoes.
The Girl With All The Gifts was originally going to be called She Who Brings Gifts (a phrase used int he film), so it stood out from all the other films with “The Girl” in the title, but then changed it back to the title of the novel it is based on.
The film is based on the book by MR Carey, and when I saw that name I thought Mariah had branched out, but it turns out to be some Scottish comic book writer called Mike. The book, as seems to be the way with these things, was developed at the same time as the film. It’s a post apocalyptic film shot in Birmingham, Cannock and Stoke, probably to save money so they don’t have to build an uninhabitable wasteland and give lots of make up to the zombie extras. It’s directed by Colm McCarthy, who has a background in high end British TV like Peaky Blinders and Sherlock, and stars Gemma Arterton, wearing her “decent British film” hat, rather than her “rubbish Hollywood film” hat that she’s too often had on in the past. It’s a weird Children of Men/28 Days Later/Never Let Me Go hybrid.
What I liked about the film is that there is very little exposition; we don’t get a title card saying “England, 2025” or whatever, we don’t find out what happened until some time into the film, we don’t see why children are being strapped in wheelchairs and taught, with one of them occasionally disappearing in between their cell and their classroom.
Newcomer Sennia Nanua (who is superb) plays Melanie, the brightest of the children, and Gemma Arterton plays Miss Justineau, the sympathetic teacher. Paddy Considine is a soldier who looks after the base where the children are kept, and Glenn Close plays a sinister doctor who is working on a cure for whatever it is that is turning people into “Hungries” (as is the norm now, the zombies are never referred to as zombies). Just before Melanie is due to be dissected (and after Miss Justineau has tried to stop it), Hungries attack the base, with only Arterton, Nanua, Considine and Close getting away, plus some others who you know will die.
The film isn’t futuristic; there are no lasers or flying cars; it could happen now, and the fungus that is turning humans into Hungries is a variation of the real fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (you know the one – you’ve seen pictures of ants with it growing through their heads). The final scenes take place near an M&S Simply Food; it’s a bit too close for comfort, and quite unsettling. It was made even more unsettling by the fact that during my screening a man was taken ill after having an epileptic fit, and when the film was halted while he received treatment, I realised that Sennia Nanua was sitting not that far away from me.
My girlfriend didn’t like it – there are rats and at one point a cat is eaten, but there are also moments of dark humour; shortly after devouring a cat, Miss Justineau finds Melanie staring at a picture of a cat on a poster. “Would you like a cat?” She asks. “I’ve already had one.” Melanie replies. When Melanie scares off a bunch of feral children by killing their leader she tells Considine and Arterton to pretend to be really scared of her. “Pretend?” Considine says.
Nanua deserves a great career (and with Arterton making noises about producing and directing, I wouldn’t be surprised if they work together), and let’s stop referring to Arterton as “former Bond girl Gemma Arterton”; she’s so much more than that. The Girl With All The Gifts is a believable, unsettling film.
films in middle depth 