Z for Zachariah

 

Z for Zachariah 2015

• Director: Craig Zobel
• Seen by this director: 3 episodes of The Leftovers
• Based on book by Robert C O’Brien
• Cast: Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Margot Robbie – The Suicide Squad, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Mary Queen of Scots, Terminal, I Tonya, The Wolf of Wall Street, About Time
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Doctor Strange, The Martian, 12 Years a Slave, Dancing on the Edge, 2012, Children of Men, Kinky Boots, Serenity, Love Actually, Dirty Pretty Things, Amistad
• Chris Pine – Wonder Woman, Into the Woods
• Why? Robbie and Ejiofor
• Seen: 11 September 2022      

       Ann (Robbie) lives alone on the family farm in the mountains. Her family has left to find survivors after a nuclear apocalypse. John (Ejiofor) shows up, contaminated, but he has medication, and she brings him back to health. Together they work to expand the farm. She is a devout Christian, he is a scientist, an atheist, but this does not prevent them from becoming very close.

       Then Caleb (Pine) shows up. Also a devout Christian. A decent man. Maybe.

       It’s an unusual post-apocalyptic film. Low-key but suspenseful. Tension grows. Two Christians and an atheist. Two men and a woman. Two whites and a black (though this plays no real part in the drama). Three humans surviving.      

       Robbie and Ejiofor live up to my high expectations. Pine isn’t bad. The film’s weakness is that it’s too much love triangle and not enough post-apocalypse. But it’s still worth seeing. 

3 ½ * of 5