How I Live Now 2013

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: There's a lot left unsaid in How I Live Now - but it's unsaid with unusual force. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Just because virtually any story can be told through the eyes of a solipsistic teen girl doesn't mean that it should be. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: In a movie without adults, the children are spontaneous and natural. And Ms. Ronan is captivating throughout. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The production feels tentative and underpopulated: I thought not only of Katniss Everdeen but of the marvelous pandemonium in Danny Boyle's zombie epic "28 Days Later." Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: The title, "How I Live Now," suggests a certain distance, and that's rigorously maintained in the movie. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Held together by a forceful performance from Saoirse Ronan, director Kevin Macdonald's adaptation of Meg Rosoff's novel makes up in emotional immediacy what it lacks in broad dramatic sweep. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Death creeps into the movie, like an invisible wave of radiation from a detonated nuke, and some of the imagery owes more to Cormac McCarthy than to Stephenie Meyer. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Weird, weird, weird. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The key objective here is not political coherence but a heavy sense of adult oppression and doom to make the heroes' innocent cuddling more poignant. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I'm not sure whom this movie's for, really. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "How I Live Now" is uncomfortably easy to believe. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: Proof there can still be boring stories during extraordinary times. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Ronan is almost always worth watching, but not especially in this drippy outing, in which she morphs from sullen teen brat to can-do wilderness heroine under the influence of an attractive red-headed hawk trainer. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: There's a clear message here: Sometimes it takes extraordinary circumstances to realize it, but we all have the capacity to shed our petty concerns and focus on the greater good. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There's nothing in the character, or Ronan's performance, to draw you in. She enters the film like a junior-grade Lindsay Lohan - all hard eyes and dyed hair and proactive disapproval - and bores almost immediately. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: As Macdonald deftly presents a subjective viewpoint, Ronan endows her overly schematic character with authentic desire, resentment and willfulness. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A frosty-eyed, imperturbable actress in "Atonement," "Hanna" and "The Host," Ronan is at least able to sell Daisy's new focus while the movie loses its own. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Mr. Macdonald struggles to balance a nebulous narrative on tentpole moments of rich emotional resonance. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: This near-end-of-the-world movie for teenagers, set mostly in the English countryside, is too vague and shaky for its own good, but it generates a haunting ambiance and develops a cumulative power. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: How I Live Now manages to fuse a teen love story, steeped in alienation and hurt, with a near-future nightmare thriller. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "How I Live Now" makes World War III seem boring, which would hardly seem possible. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's breathtaking how many tones and themes are skillfully juggled in "How I Live Now." Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: How I Live Now offers adolescents a lovely vision of holistic healing in the same countryside. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail: Refreshingly free of digital apocalyptics and unnervingly prone to random violence. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: How I Live Now centres on what happens to a group of young people when civilization begins to crumble. But it's also a poignant love story, a compelling, against-all-odds one at that. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: There's not really enough here to get teenage girls totes emosh. Not enough to sigh and swoon over. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Wearing its YA credentials with a darkly romantic flourish, this uneven adaptation of Meg Rosoff's apocalyptic 2004 novel gets serious in a hurry, much like its characters. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: The film is a fine one, moving and surprising and scraped of most of the love-me! fantasy that typifies formulaic YA. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "How I Live Now" is a showcase for Ronan to prove that she's capable of more than pristine, angelic roles. Read more