In the age of print turned picture, director Kevin Macdonald’s latest British drama really hits the spot.

“How I Live Now” was adapted from author Meg Rosoff’s 2004 young adult novel of the same name and was screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival alongside such box office hits as “12 Years a Slave” and “Blue is the Warmest Color.”

The film stars Saoirse Ronan, the twenty-year-old Irish actress known for her roles in “The Host,”“The Lovely Bones,”“Atonement” and many more. Ronan is one of the youngest actresses to receive an Oscar nomination for her role in “Atonement.”

In the film, Ronan’s character, Daisy, is a disturbed and neurotic American teenager sent to stay with her British cousins, Eddie, Isaac and Piper, on their secluded English farm.

She lands at Heathrow Airport to rumors of Parisian bombings and whisperings of an impending World War III. Arriving at the farm, Daisy is at first cold and confrontational, but quickly warms up to her cousins, especially the eldest, Eddie, played by George MacKay. She swiftly falls in love with him; they are cousins only through marriage.

The group devotes their whimsical summer days to bonfire dancing and skinny-dipping, until suddenly a nearby nuclear bomb intrudes upon their innocent nostalgia. Confusion and fear set in and they struggle to survive as the U.K. asserts martial law and war envelops the world around them.

The film, given 3.7 out of 5 stars by Netflix users, will likely leave you teary-eyed and extremely uneasy. The film’s cinematography is dark, peculiar and abrupt. It’s authenticity is heightened as the war is viewed through the eyes of the innocent, much like Mark Herman’s 2008 adaptation of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.”

If you’re in the mood for something suspenseful and thought-provoking, this is your fix.

Follow Kelsey on Twitter @kisaackspousson