Love will lead you home.
Based on the novel by Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now follows Daisy (Saoirse Ronan), an American angsty teen who arrives in the English countryside with a healthy dose of anger and resentment. Her mother died in childbirth and her father has started a new life, with a new family.
So Daisy is shipped off to live with her mother’s cousin (really just a close family friend from long ago), her two boys, Edmund (George MacKay) and Isaac (Tom Holland) and one daughter, Piper (Harley Bird).
Because of a rising political crisis, her aunt leaves for Geneva to assist with an emergency, leaving the kids free reign over the house.
With their mom now gone, Edmund, Isaac and Piper finally coax Daisy out of her room and get her to open up. And to fall in love. Edmund and Daisy begin a whirlwind romance, keeping it a secret from everyone at first.
But what is supposed to be a summer away turns dark quickly. Bombs are dropped. Gunshots are heard across the hills. Soldiers arrive and tear the children apart. Boys to one camp. Girls to another. Edmond makes Daisy promise to escape and find her way back home. To him. To whatever awaits the future of the country, the world. Together.
Here’s the run down:
Action: Though not a game by any measure, the wandering through the woods of two young girls, with dangers at every corner, is a bit Hunger Games-esque. Daisy must fight soldiers, wilderness, bandits and her own inner demons to find her way back home. Action-packed, without a doubt.
Suspense: Essentially World War III has errupted in this film, which will keep you white-knuckling the edge of your seat in anticipation of how Daisy’s journey will unfold. Will she make it home? What will she lose along the way? Who will be there waiting for her?
Romance: Daisy and Edmund. Edmund and Daisy. They come together quickly and then are ripped away even more rapidly. But the fierceness of their love endures.
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