Season 2 of the smash HBO seriesThe Last of Usis slated for release in April of this year. Despite being just a few months away, you might be able to wait around for more Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal) venturing across a post-apocalyptic clicker landscape ravaged by a fungal plague. In that case, an excellent movie currently available on Prime Video uses many of the same plot devices and will satiate your cravings until HBO officially announces the premiere date ofthe highly anticipated second season. 2016’sThe Girl With All the GiftsstarsGlenn Close,Paddy Considine, andGemma Arterton, but it is the youngSennia Nanuaas Melanie who is at the center of the plot in what is an intelligent and compelling story thatcurrently has a score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. LikeThe Last of Us,The Girl With All the Giftsfeatures a precocious, wise-beyond-her-years girl who holds the key to humankind’s future. However, Melanie has a much different plan for civilization than Ellie.
What Is ‘The Girl With All the Gifts’ About?
While bothThe Last of UsandThe Girl With All the Giftsrevolvearound young girls at the forefront of a journeythrough a barren world crawling with feral zombies, a key difference is addressed at the film’s beginning. While Ellie has an immunity to the contagion that has turned the population into mindless flesh-eaters,Melanie is born with the same rabid bloodlust as the “Hungries” that have taken over society. This is why she is kept in a cell and masked. She is a star pupil in a militarized bunker where scientist Dr Caroline Caldwell (Close) is trying to find a cure for the virus before the Hungries overrun the human race.
When the campus perimeter is breached and infiltrated by the Hungries, it’s a free-for-all. Only a handful of people escape with their lives, including Melanie, her favorite teacher and protector, Helen Justineau (Arterton), head of security at the base Eddie Parks (Considine), and Dr. Caldwell. Together, they are left to navigate what is left ofa scary-as-hell world teeming with scavenger zombies who attack swiftly and in great numbers. Throughout it all, an intriguing game of chess is played between Dr. Caldwell, who believes Melanie holds the key to survival, and Justineau, who would rather die than let Melanie become Caldwell’s lab rat,poking and prodding at her brain for answers.
Sennia Nanua is Remarkable as the Titular ‘Girl With All the Gifts’
At just 14 years old whenThe Girl With All the Giftswas filmed, the British-born actress Sennia Nanua as Melanie displays terrific range and dynamism, having to play a layered character with a different relationship with each of the older and more experienced characters. She initially exhibits a helpful and eager-to-learn relationship with her military base teacher, Ms. Justineau. Next, she undertakes amercurial and mysteriousdynamic with the cagey Dr. Caldwell, asthe audience is not privy to why she and the other children are locked away and treated like animals. They both hold their cards close to their chest, not wanting to divulge their motivation in the first act. She shifts in and out of these modes seamlessly throughout the film’s first half and then pivots again in the movie’s finale.
HBO Just Seemingly Confirmed Exactly How Many Seasons of ‘The Last of Us’ We Have Left
We could do this forever.
By the time she and the group have hitthe dangerous, zombie-infested landscape, she has to convince the soldiers that she is savvy enough to control her inherent desire for flesh so they can trust her and not kill her or be killed by her. Then, on a dime, when the group needs her to unleash her innate thirst for protection,Nanua performs a complete heel-turn and conjures a ravenous ferocity to establish herself as the alpha among a group of young Hungriesthat threatens the safety of the survivors. The brilliant twist at the end allows her to show childlike earnestness as she finally and cleverly lays her cards on the table, and Caldwell is helpless to stop her radical plan. Sannua handles this exchange with Close masterfully for a rewarding finale.
‘The Girl With All the Gifts’ Has a Different Urgency To It Than ‘The Last of Us’
There is a similarity in the guardian aspect of Joel to Ellie with Ms. Justineau to Melanie, but the roles of protector and proctee are swapped. Melanie does not need to be shielded from the Hungries, and once she is freed from being masked and restrained, she’s the one protecting Ms. Justineau.
Because it is a two-hour movie and not an eight-episode series,The Girl With All the Giftsclicks along much more urgently thanThe Last of Us.There is a greater sense of impending doom as the zombies are everywhere. InThe Last of Us, the show’s tone is designed to sustain an entire season of episodes, performing a deep dive into the backstories of the characters of Ellie and Joel, and taking its time with how their relationship evolves. The HBO show also accentuates the barrenness of a civilization wiped out by the fungal plague, whileThe Girl With All the Giftsfocuses much more on the here and now of their awful predicament.
The Girl With All the Gifts
A scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.
