Very loosely adapted from the 1974 post-apocalyptic novel by Robert C. O'Brien, (the same guy who wrote Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH!) Z for Zachariah features three great actors—Chiwetel Ejiofor, Margot Robbie, and Chris Pine—playing off each other. But all three are working from thin cloth; by the eighth or ninth time the camera holds on Ejiofor glowering at Pine, or the 10th scene where Robbie's entire purpose is to look distraught, one senses these actors' talents aren't being fully utilized. Time to dig up an old paperback of O'Brien's book. by Erik Henriksen