Saprophytic Society: The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
My dear readers, as some of you will surely recall, I have devoted some small space in these critical entries to the memory of my days in boarding school. My parents always had the most particular standards when it came to my academic performance and while the burden of their expectations was heavy indeed, it was not mine alone to bear. My instructors were also put under a fair amount of pressure and this was never more evident than during our parent teacher conferences. My mother and father were known for having an imperious air, and even the most unflappable of faculty members often found themselves in a state of advanced perspiration during an audience with this formidable duo. For example, their habit of arriving to the conference by steed was considered a bit eccentric at the time, as was their refusal to dismount once inside the classroom. What’s more, any reservations about my conduct were met with thundering disapproval. And though they were not professional educators, they must have at least dabbled in the preceptorial arts, as they made repeated mentions of providing my instructors with, “a lesson they would never forget.” I had not given it much thought in my younger days but reflecting back, there did seem to be a surprisingly high turnover rate for teachers who incurred my parent’s displeasure and I can only assume this was due to a highly responsive school administration, one that took the concerns of both parents and students seriously.
Melanie takes a moment to appreciate the struggles of her ancestors
Melanie (Sennia Nanua) knows all about the benefits of institutional education. She seems to be enrolled in a rather good school, where class sizes are reasonable, instructors are pleasant and the students are given a great deal of individual attention. Admittedly, some of their policies may seem a touch severe to the outside observer. The unnamed institution sees to it that students are locked in their seats, spaced at considerable intervals and ferried back to their dormitories by teams of heavily armed guards. But there is a perfectly good reason for these procedures -- Melanie and her peers are a hybrid species, born of mothers infected with a fungus that has turned most of humanity into mindless hordes of flesh-eating zombies. While this novel breed has developed enough immunity to keep their wits about them, they still possess a hearty bloodlust and may gnaw on whomever comes along. And so, in the interest of safety, stringent protocol is adhered to at all times.
That is, until a sizable breach on campus causes class to be dismissed indefinitely. The facility becomes overrun by the more insentient form of the fungus-enabled, making it completely unsuitable as an environment for learning. With the fate of her classmates unknown, Melanie finds herself on something of an indefinite field trip, running about with her teacher Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton) and Dr. Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close). Dr. Caldwell fancies that she can whip up a vaccine that will preserve whatever remains of humankind and is convinced that Melanie and her ilk are the key to producing such a remedy. Though their circumstances make maintaining the rigors of scientific methodology a tad tricky, Dr. Caldwell is keen to cracking away at the thing, and her controversial theories lead both Melanie and Helen to a serious reckoning with their priorities.
For a bloodthirsty harbinger of mankind’s imminent destruction, Melanie is awfully cute
Those of you who have been reading this publication for an extended period of time may have noticed that despite the steely objectivity demanded by my craft, I do possess what some might call an optimistic streak. It is an attitude that does not apply to cinema alone and in spite of how bleak the outlook may be at any particular moment, I believe that when one takes the long perspective, things tend to gradually improve over time. It would seem director Colm McCarthy has similar feelings, as his film The Girl with All the Gifts is a truly an exercise in optimism. At the outset, the first generation of this new saprophytic society seems to be having a tough time of it, what with the mindless devouring and all. While the second generation has retained the bits that make them yearn for living flesh, they are far more intelligent and, with a little bit of schooling, they can be quite civilized in between feeding sprees. Who knows what improvements the next batch will see? It may take wiping out most of humanity to get things just right but it is encouraging to know that they are headed in the right direction. It is the sort of cinematic statement that really gives one hope for the future.
The Girl with All the Gifts runs 111 minutes and is rated R for disturbing violence, bloody images and language.
