'Z For Zachariah': A new take on the end of the world

The world has ended. Streets are deserted. Humanity is all but wiped out.

Haven't we heard this one before?

Turns out, we haven't.

The postapocalypse has been trendy for a while, but of late, there seems to be a spate of tales of the end times, and we eat them up. (Fear the Walking Dead, AMC's newest entry into the zombie genre, just pulled in record numbers for a cable debut, for instance.) But director Craig Zobel and writer Nissar Modi turn annihilation into a tale of human interaction in Z for Zachariah.

Ann (Margot Robbie, who has proved herself quite the chameleon in her relatively short career) believes she is alone. She was sheltered from the mysterious cataclysm by the valley where she lives, lushly captured by cinematographer Tim Orr. Just a girl and her dog.

One day, she happens upon a man in a giant, alien-like suit. When he disrobes to swim in a contaminated stream, she saves him, and befriends him.

The man is John (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who, once recuperated, augments Ann's natural survival skills with his scientific knowledge. Ann invites the traumatized and, at times, frightening John to live with her - at first as a friend, but her interest in the next level of companionship is piqued.

He can't, he tells her - it would change things for them. They are so different. Ann believes in a higher power. John does not. (The movie's title refers to a book Ann has on her shelves, A is for Adam, the first man. By that logic, Zachariah would be the last.) They deserve time to get to know each other. Good thing all they have is time.

Their equilibrium, however, is upset by a third person, Caleb (Chris Pine), a rugged, beat-up man who seems to appear out of nowhere. He's more like Ann, and not just because they are both white, while John is black (something John slyly notes). He throws Ann and John's precarious relationship off-kilter.

Robbie, Ejiofor, and Pine are excellent, giving a compelling center to a film that takes its time rather than rushing the plot. Robbie plays low-key. Ejiofor is a man on the edge, constantly deciding whether to jump, while Pine gives Caleb an uneasy ambiguity. Is he a threat to Ann and John, or do they need him to survive?

Z for Zachariah is based, ostensibly, on the YA novel by Robert C. O'Brien (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH), but the plot is drastically altered. Caleb, for one, is not in the book at all. Still, the bones of the novel remain in place.

Zobel's previous work has dealt with human interactions under extraordinary circumstances. See his most recent film, Compliance, about the lengths to which people will go to obey authority. Like Compliance, Z for Zachariah shows how terrifying and redeeming interpersonal relationships can be. We crave human contact, yet it can still destroy us, even at the end of the world.

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