28 Years Later
Review by Mark Woodring
Fans of the Danny Boyle franchise have been waiting a long time for this one: nearly 20 years, to be exact, since 2007 when the slightly less than well-received 28 Years Later hit theaters.
I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of 28 Weeks Later, but I was gratified that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland were both back on board for this one.
**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
115 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Alex Garland
Directed by Danny Boyle
Synopsis:
A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
Some creatives might prefer to discount an unsuccessful (in my opinion) entry in a franchise, especially if those creatives were the one who originated the world in the first place. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland do not surrender to that temptation. Instead, they move the story forward to when the world now exists with people who know no other world but this one.
The entirety of the United Kingdom has been quarantined, and is the only place the Rage virus still flourishes. 28 Years Later puts us on a small island sanctuary of survivors who have established as close to a utopia as can exist in a dystopic universe. Communal jobs, materials, teaching, parenting even, bring the island together in a way only suffering can.
So we meet Spike, son of Isla and Jamie, 12 years old and about to take his first trip off the island to the mainland with his dad in a right of passage. Jamie expects him to get his first kill (of an Infected) and to learn why their island is so special.
Both things happen, but not as smoothly as they might have. Trapped overnight by an “Alpha,” a supercharged Infected, they barely make it back across the tide-hidden causeway before the guards kill the Alpha.
Isla is sick, though, and Spike decides to break with his father and attempt to reach Doctor Kelson, who he learns is on the mainland, despite Jamie’s admonition that the doctor had long ago gone insane and couldn’t help.
What follows is Spike truly coming of age, escorting and protecting his ill and confused mother through Infected infested lands, all in the hope of reaching someone who may or may not be able to help… or worse, if Jamie is to be believed.
Much like 28 Days later, the encounters with the Infected in 28 Years Later are intense and harrowing, though they are not the overpowering force of the film, nor do they dominate the screen time. Instead, the relationships between the uninfected and the world they inhabit are the more compelling and front-facing aspect of the narrative.
Upon finally reaching Doctor Kelson, Spike and Isla see his towers of bones, a chilling moment which would seem to confirm Jamie’s story, but once they deal with him, truth becomes much less black and white.
Jodie Comer never fails to impress, and her portrayal of a sick mother who desperately wants to keep her son safe is often heartbreaking. Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Jamie is a battle-hardened, world-weary man who wants to prepare his son for the world he must inhabit, even if he must sacrifice a more genial father-son dynamic to do so.
Alfie Williams’ Spike is the grounding rod of the film, though. In a normal world, he’d probably be a favorite of his art or writing teacher, but here he is forced to be something else: his mother’s sword and shield, son and caregiver, driven to protect with a will that belies his age.
What surprised me most was Ralph Fiennes’ Doctor Kelson. Fiennes is going to embody whatever role he takes on, and Kelson is a surprising bag of contradictions: part doctor, part philosopher, and yes, part madman. Fiennes makes him imminently relatable, even likable, and in a way I consider him the most beautiful character in the film. He exists outside of fear, or hate, or longing of the world he inhabits, but rather has found a sort of spiritual equilibrium within it for himself.
Garland’s script gives Boyle plenty to work with, and he does so with aplomb. The quick jump-cuts of 28 Days Later are here, lending the necessary sense of detachment to the proceedings, and his use of seemingly random bits of what I call “old world” noise to punctuate the constant uncertainty of the narrative world our characters inhabit is meant to be disjointing, and it is.
Overall, I found 28 Years Later to be at least the equal of the original film, and the fact we will get two more films based directly from this story line pleases me in a way normal Hollywood shoehorning of material into production does not.
Check out 28 Years Later if you’re a fan of the first. You won’t be disappointed.
28 Years Later finds it’s way back into theaters on Friday, June 20, and stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, and Ralph Fiennes.
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