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Massawyrm really wanted to like INKHEART, but...


Hola all. Massawyrm here.

In the rush to duplicate the success of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies, the studios snapped up anything and everything fantasy with any following at all and have spent the last few years trying to make them work. Some have worked with mixed success (the Narnia films, The Spiderwick Chronicles) others have been miserable failures (Eragon, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising.) But there have been few, if any that were solid, well intentioned misfires. Until now. Filling the vacancy in the studio success rate is Inkheart, a film with a solid concept, a wonderful cast and good story…that just fails to ever connect properly with the audience.

Inkheart is not a bad film. In fact, it is one I quite would like to enjoy. But the whole thing feels hollow – like it is the Tin Man of movies. Everything is in the right place and functioning as it should. There’s just one thing missing. But despite how interesting the concept is, despite how well done much of the design work is, despite how much heart was put INTO this, there’s very little heart that comes OUT of it. No matter how hard you try, it is almost impossible to care about these characters. They try really hard to get you to care, and you just can’t.

The basic concept is simple: there are people in this world born with the gift to read passages aloud and summon the characters and items right off of the page. Trouble is, when you do it, it sends someone or something back into the book you were reading. Now, this element is never properly explained and seems to only be used when it is appropriate to the story (and not, you know, during the climax.) But when our hero (Brendan Fraser) reads to his wife and daughter, one of the characters comes out and his wife pops in. Fast Forward 12 years and Fraser and his daughter (Eliza Bennett who looks disturbingly like a prepubescent Laura Dern) travel the globe looking for another copy of the out of print book his wife is trapped in while being chased by an evil character from the book who wants to use his power to summon riches and powerful creatures.

Trouble is Fraser, in spite of being the lead, is the least interesting character in the movie. Despite such a cool power, he’s given even less of a character than can be found in most of his other characters. And the entire crux of the film hinges upon his relationship with his daughter, which is just kind of there. I like Fraser a lot – he’s found his niche and is becoming the Doug McClure of this younger generation. He’s the plucky, strong jawed hero with a good humor about him and this likable gosh-darn quality. And if this was the 60’s, he’d be rolling around on the ground with rubber monsters rather than running from CG menaces. We’ve seen greatness out of him (Gods and Monsters) but he’s the kind of guy that can’t bring anything extra to a role. If the soul of the character doesn’t exist on the page, Fraser won’t invent one to fill the gap. And this character is a paint by numbers dad that desperately needed someone to bring something different to the role.

Everyone else is at least interesting. Bennet is adorable as the plucky daughter and brings a lot to her (mostly underwritten) character. Paul Bettany BRINGS IT, as he is oft to do, and really makes a lot out of the role of Dustfinger – a wily, selfish fire summoner pulled out of the book Inkheart. There’s even a cool moment in which real-life wife Jennifer Connolly shows up in flashback as…his wife. Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent both seem to be having the time of their lives playing over the top caricatures and Andy Serkis is great as the slimy villain. But as hard as everyone seems to be trying to bring this to life, it just always fails to connect. Even though it’s very lean and doesn’t have a moment of fat to it, it just gets boring as you just find it hard to care about what’s going on.

And all of that is before you even begin to think about how fast and loose they play with their own laws, rules and setups throughout the film. They’ve essentially created omnipotent characters (the movie introduces three that exist at the same time) but assume that despite these beings existing for thousands of years, that no one has ever thought of the things they do in the climax. And once you begin wondering about that, the entire concept of the film collapses in upon itself.

But like I said, it’s not a terrible film. If you’ve got kids, they might enjoy it. It’s fairly fast paced and has a smattering of cute moments – and some REALLY COOL special effects at times. There’s some Wizard of Oz flying monkeys in here that would tickle Harry’s brain into thinking about that updated version of the film he’d like to see that he wrote about in his book. But ultimately it is a mostly forgettable affair that will leave you shrugging at the end. It’s cute, but will most likely suffer the fate of many of its other fantasy contemporaries, never to see the rest of its series brought to the screen.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.

Massawyrm

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Reader Talkback

It Couldn't Be Any Worse Than Last Chance Harvey
by WriteFromLeft
Jan 21st, 2009
08:55:49 PM
the problem with this movie is one that plagues other fantasy fl
by jig98
Jan 21st, 2009
09:14:40 PM
Can barely stand Harry Potter films
by Heckles
Jan 21st, 2009
09:14:44 PM
I tried to like the book too. Tried and failed.
by FlickaPoo
Jan 21st, 2009
09:15:10 PM
Golden Compass part deux
by Redfoot the Fence
Jan 21st, 2009
09:48:42 PM
Oh, see...
by Massawyrm 1
Jan 21st, 2009
09:54:15 PM
Hands up who thought the next line after the headline was:
by Vim Fuego
Jan 21st, 2009
10:01:15 PM
FOR NARNIA!
by laraz
Jan 21st, 2009
10:06:54 PM
Eragon
by Charlie_Allnut
Jan 21st, 2009
10:28:05 PM
The Golden Compass
by Series7
Jan 21st, 2009
10:33:02 PM
Series7, you might want to rewatch that movie.
by Player 1
Jan 21st, 2009
10:36:58 PM
I don't even want to like Inkheart
by zooch
Jan 21st, 2009
10:39:25 PM
I remember...
by somethingcool
Jan 21st, 2009
10:45:58 PM
If I were a movie critic...
by Ronald Raygun
Jan 21st, 2009
10:48:39 PM
eh I dunno...
by The Amazing G
Jan 21st, 2009
10:54:09 PM
I read the first half of the first HARRY POTTER...
by Darth Deezen
Jan 21st, 2009
11:01:30 PM
that title
by frank cotton
Jan 21st, 2009
11:45:20 PM
Massawyrm really wanted to like Inkheart...
by yodalovesyou
Jan 22nd, 2009
02:10:33 AM
Massawyrm, the book had the same problem
by MorpheusTheSandman
Jan 22nd, 2009
02:41:34 AM
Oddly, Brendan Fraser's really good in this.
by palimpsest
Jan 22nd, 2009
02:59:19 AM
Artemis Fowl is coming to the big screen
by Iron-kong
Jan 22nd, 2009
04:09:05 AM
*edit*
by Iron-kong
Jan 22nd, 2009
04:10:07 AM
On a Greyhound going to Memphis
by Iron-kong
Jan 22nd, 2009
04:11:04 AM
Morpheus: "I quited it after reading"
by half vader
Jan 22nd, 2009
04:21:05 AM
brendan fraser
by El Borak
Jan 22nd, 2009
05:25:52 AM
btw
by El Borak
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:10:50 AM
Harry Potter as inspiration, yes. LOTR, no.
by Kevin Holsinger
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:15:18 AM
Yeah, BUT...
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:17:45 AM
palimpsest
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:19:21 AM
Why no FIGHTING FANTASY movie?!?!?
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:21:23 AM
Why SPIDERWICK ruled
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:22:39 AM
"As he is oft to do"?
by kevinwillis.net
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:26:03 AM
"PAUL BETANNY BRINGS IT!!!!"
by IAmMrMonkey!
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:12:46 AM
spud mcspud!
by IAmMrMonkey!
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:17:52 AM
kevinwillis.net
by IAmMrMonkey!
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:20:25 AM
WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:23:07 AM
Hammer Morror
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:24:04 AM
I thought I had absolutely no interest in seeing this
by Shut the Fuck up Donny
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:45:51 AM
Shut the Fuck up Donny
by spud mcspud
Jan 22nd, 2009
08:36:32 AM
if the only critique is 'doesnt connect with audience'
by ArcadianDS
Jan 22nd, 2009
10:36:49 AM
Kevin Holsinger
by yomomma
Jan 22nd, 2009
10:53:12 AM
...but...
by Kid Z
Jan 22nd, 2009
12:14:24 PM
Brendan Fraser is Mo
by Tindog42
Jan 22nd, 2009
12:54:30 PM
Ahh, Brendan Fraser
by Organs
Jan 22nd, 2009
02:01:16 PM
I agree with ArcadianDS here.
by The Reluctant Austinite
Jan 22nd, 2009
02:59:45 PM
I could have sworn I liked this movie
by FamousEccles
Jan 22nd, 2009
03:10:49 PM
I liked Lemony Snicket too
by johnnyangel
Jan 22nd, 2009
03:54:42 PM
judging from the commercials
by vaudeville villain
Jan 22nd, 2009
03:57:12 PM
Artemis Fowl - talk about your "wannabes"
by Puddleglum
Jan 22nd, 2009
04:32:13 PM
brendan frasier ..........
by mojoman69
Jan 22nd, 2009
05:50:59 PM
I felt the exact same way
by Silverhour
Jan 22nd, 2009
05:59:23 PM
Brendan Frasier = "Epic Fail"
by Puddleglum
Jan 22nd, 2009
06:50:45 PM
I'll see it for the FX, like Spiderwick
by SoylentMean
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:06:42 PM
They really need to do a series based on John Bellairs' books
by SoylentMean
Jan 22nd, 2009
07:07:56 PM
SoylentMean
by somethingcool
Jan 23rd, 2009
12:07:48 AM
PAULBLART
by ironic_name
Jan 23rd, 2009
12:51:18 AM
Artemis Fowl
by Vergil
Jan 23rd, 2009
02:22:14 AM
Frasier
by The McPoyle Clan
Jan 23rd, 2009
04:15:21 AM
Fraser DID show promise...
by Rakafraker
Jan 23rd, 2009
05:06:38 AM

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