​FILMS

young ones

Young Ones: (Drama/Action/Science Fiction): 54 out of 100: An interesting premise where water is hard to find should make for a very exciting film. After a tense and engrossing stand-off to open the film between three characters, the story then becomes rather routine.

Kodi Smit-McPhee (Jerome) and Elle Fanning (Mary) play the children of Michael Shannon (Ernest). Nicholas Hoult rounds off the main cast by portraying Flem Lever, the partner of Mary. The story is divided into three chapters but they all revolve around the theme of the characters doing their best to find the precious resource of water.

The location shooting is a bonus because the landscape chosen perfectly depicts the barren land that is in the throes of an epic drought. There are some very interesting ways of using other methods of replacing water to perform daily tasks. It would have been great if there was more of a science-fiction element to the whole story but the plot focuses more on the interaction between the characters.

Jake Paltrow (brother of Gwyneth) is the writer and director who has made the story a character-driven piece. The only problem is these characters aren't really that interesting. The film would have worked better with more vitality in the script and intriguing, exciting characters. There are moments scattered throughout the film however, which do draw you in but you just wish that there could have been many more of them.

"Young Ones" is definitely a film of missed opportunities. It won't be attracting too much of an audience because the combination of drama, action and science fiction is uneven. This is simply a case of the ideas were fantastic but the execution could have been better.

Starring Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Elle Fanning and Kodi Smit-McPhee
(100 minutes)
Parental advice: Violence and adult themes
Additional scene during or after credits: No
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH9_tU5PbGs (Movie trailer)

(Reviewed on Wednesday 17th December, 2014)