Review of “Inkheart”
Young adult fantasy literature is a veritable bounty for Hollywood. Every studio is out to harvest the next Harry Potter franchise, the next Twilight. Inkheart is just the first in a planned series of films based on Cornelia Funke’s youth novels. In it, Brendan Fraser plays Mo Folchart, a repairer of books who travels the countryside with teen daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennet). This being teen fantasy, Mo is of course magically gifted. He is a silvertongue, and by simply reading text aloud he brings the written word to life, pulling characters from the pages of books into flesh and blood in our world.
Of course, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and so for every character drawn from literature, something is sent from our world into the fantastical literary realm. With Meggie in tow, Mo scours bookshops for the very rare novel ‘Inkheart’, which he read aloud from many years prior, accidentally drawing out a cast of shady characters and losing his wife to the book. Mo hopes to read his wife back out, but the shady Capricorn (Andy Serkis) will do anything to keep from going back in to the novel.
I loathe those folk who have read the obscure novel upon which a film is based and go on and on about how the filmmakers tortured the source material, and pull apart every little point of difference. So imagine how it is killing me to bite my lip about what happened in the translation from page to screen here. What I will say is that there are very basic explanations missing that really test the viewer’s suspension of disbelief. Gaping plot holes aside, Inkheart is a lovely little film, aimed at the bookish among us, and peppered with a love of the literary, in the vein of The Never Ending Story. There are rich layers and familiar characters and worlds to look for here that can be enjoyed by all the reading members of your family.
So what if the camerawork in the charming Italian locations is occasionally woefully under-lit, and who cares that the acting is mostly ham-fisted – this is a kid’s movie. Helen Mirren (playing Mo’s Great Aunt Elinor) all but pours tomato sauce over the scenery before chewing it, and while the extras are pure pantomime, they suit their storybook origins. As the villain of the piece, Andy Sirkis shines. It’s great to see the Lord of the Rings star step out from behind the CGI of Gollum and given a meaty, fun role to work with.
CK
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