INKHEART

“INKHEART” (Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany & Helen Mirren)

On the whole, I liked this film – for a total fantasy aimed at a young audience, it was entertaining enough for an old coot like moi. My main complaint is that it should have been ‘wider’ – it had the premise to go way beyond what it does; but when all was said & done, I enjoyed the fairy tale adventure.
Brendan Fraser, who other than a cameo appearance in the great “Crash” hasn’t made a memorable film in YEARS, stars as Mo Folchart, a man who discovers as he reads to his infant daughter Meggie that he has the ability to bring characters from books to life simply by reading them out loud. Nicknamed ‘Silvertongue’ by the characters he brings into our world, Mo stops reading when the ability leads to the disappearance of his wife.
The book Mo was reading was ‘Inkheart’ & the story unfolds as he searches the world trying to find another copy of the book.
Paul Bettany plays Dustfinger, a sad, frightened character from the book that has the ability to create fire in his hands. His only wish is to have ‘Silvertongue’ read him back into the book so he can be reunited with his wife & family.
Helen Mirren takes the role of Aunt Elinor & though a lesser talented actress would have sufficed in the part, Helen lowers herself somewhat to fit the character of the intolerant yet caring Great Aunt to Meggie.
Andy Serkis (Best known as Gollum) plays Capricorn, the villain of ‘Inkheart’. Using a substitute Silvertongue who stutters, Capricorn has had many of his army of ne-er-do-wells join him in the real world; these misfits all have a defect due to the stutterer’s inability to speak clearly. So to bring The Shadow, the monster of ‘Inkheart’ to life to take over the world, Capricorn needs Mo to read him into reality.
It seems everyone has a stake in wanting Mo to read out loud once again & it becomes your typical good vrs. evil scenario.
By saying I wish the film had a ‘wider’, or broader vision, I mean in the sense of who is brought to life during the film – Toto & the flying monkeys are brought out of The Wizard Of Oz; There’s also unicorn & a minotaur in Capricorn’s stable. Then a ‘thief’ from Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves appears. Cinderella’s glass slipper is seen shortly after Tom Sawyer’s raft comes crashing into Capricorn’s castle – in other words, ‘tidbits’ are read to life, whereas they could have gone hog wild with the fantasy & created a vast quantity of classic literary characters.
Jim Broadbent plays the author of ‘Inkheart’ & I didn’t think his character was very well written. Seemed to me the author should have been a better writer since when the very fate of the world depends on him, Broadbent’s character develops writer’s block.
But in the end, you have to come back to the fact that this is pure fantasy & thus nothing HAS to make sense as long as unlikely characters become heroes & the villains are conquered.
‘Inkheart’ isn’t an instant classic, but neither is it so childish that it becomes annoying (ala Fraser’s ‘Journey To The Center Of The Earth’) As long as you don’t take it as a ‘serious’ blockbuster, ‘Inkheart’ is a pleasant little fun fantasy tale with just enough originality to keep it interesting throughout