Embers is a film about memory. Without reading a synopsis, you have no idea what is going to happen in the film. Watching it, in its opening moments, is watching a story unravel where the main characters do not seem to have a purpose, or a memory of their own.
Snapping between different individuals, there's a recurrent theme. No one can remember who they are, where they are, what they're doing, or where they're going.
Short term memory loss is rampant.
It's not until a scene later in the introductory elements of the movie where we learn there's a pathogen of sorts out there, discovered by an embunkered daughter and father who live in what amounts to be a bombshelter.
The world "topside" is what would result from... a bomb going off, there's ruin, decrepit decay, and piles of rubbish strewn about the urban landscape.
Embers is an unconventional film in that it is not big on exposition. It tells the story through showing, with little explanation of the characters or thier motivations.
Memory, being such an ... interesting and evocative topic seems to make you want to dig deeper at the subject matter - how do these people remember to talk, walk, eat, and all the other bits and pieces vital to life, but don't remember other things?
It's a bit like alzheimers, but as a pandemic, and that doesn't make it a bad film, but it is interesting that there is the preservation of personality among the cast of characters impacted by the memory losses.
There's not a lot else to say about this film, except for the cinematography is very inconsistent. At the start of the film, there's lots and lots of camera sway, almost to the point of neasuea. I'm not sure if this is intended in a bid to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and disoriented, but this is certainly the impression and effect it had upon me.
Once you start to catch on to whats going on with the characters and their stories, it goes away.
It's an interesting take on memory loss and what could happen if people forgot who they were and their purpose, but I feel as though the far more interesting story would be the "how this came to be", rather than the aftermath.
