MOVIE REVIEW: INKHEART

INKHEART

Four of Seven Cows

Inkheart, starring Brendan Fraser and Eliza Bennett, is a tedious, boring affair. Having not read the book I can only surmise, but I suspect that there was a whole lot more story to tell here; the film seems a bit like the Cliff Notes’-version of something potentially grand and beautiful. Unfortunately, whatever plot there was appears to have been pared down to the bare minimum – no sub-plots or storylines, no off-camera intrigue. The story is completely linear and predictable, a sort of paint-by-the-numbers affair that gets the characters from point A to B in as direct a manner possible: Booooooring.

Brendan Fraser is good at playing Brendan Fraser, so distinguishing between Mo ‘Silvertongue’ Folchart and his character from the Mummy franchise is nearly impossible. It’s the same guy, so good thing that he’s rather likeable. In Inkheart Fraser plays a Silvertongue; whenever he reads aloud from a book the characters jump from the pages into real life. This is a rather good idea, and I suspect that in the book the potential is realized. But here the viewer is left asking, “Where’s the beef?”

The acting in Inkheart is uniformly good. Bennett is fine as Meggie Folchart, though best of show goes to Helen Mirren as Elinor Loredan, Meggie’s aunt. Acerbic, witty and non-plussed, she gets my vote as front-runner for Curmudgeon of the Year. Paul Bettany plays Dustfinger – a sort of fire juggler – well, though perhaps with a dash too much empathy for my taste. I hate whiners, even when they have good reason to whine. But that’s just me.

As with most recent fantasy films, the special effects are outstanding. Seeing the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz almost makes me wish for a remake of that classic. I say ‘almost’ partly because I know Hollywood would defile it, and partly because I never really liked the first one all that much. Toto was cute, though.

If you’re bringing munchkins to the movies Inkheart isn’t a bad way to go. The paucity of plot will go unnoticed by them and there’s no truly objectionable material for parents to worry about – if indeed parents worry about that sort of thing anymore. There’s good guys and bad guys, and the right ones win in the end, so all’s well.

So  that’s my recommendation for Inkheart: If you have kids and have already seen Hotel For Dogs – and your DVD player is broke – then by all means go see it. I give Inkheart four flying cows.