Review: ‘Inkheart’

Ram Man:

Brendan Frasier, acting human roller-coaster, has another film opening this weekend… ‘Inkheart’. Frasier who has excelled in films like ‘Gods and Monsters’, ‘Crash’,’With Honors’ and fell flat in ‘Dudley Do-Right’, ‘Bedazzeled’ and ‘Airheads’… so going into one of Brendan’s films you never know which actor is going to show up. Director Lain Softley (Skeleton Key) has grouped Fraiser with some talented supporting actors like Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany and Andy Serkis in order to give Inkheart a chance at box office survival.

Inkheart is a magical tale of a small group of people, “silvertongues”, who have the ability to draw things from books just by reading them aloud. Pretty cool huh?   Mo Folchart (Frasier) is one of these silver tongues. He is married to Resa (Sienna Guillroy) and together they have a daughter Meggie ( Eliza Bennett). One night when Meggie was very young Mo was reading a children’s novel ‘Inkheart’ to his daughter when he discovered that there was another part of his magical ability. Every time he brings something out of the story he reads, something from his world goes into the book. That very night as Mo read to Meggie about Dustfinger the fire juggler (Bettany)… he came to life. That was the same evening that Resa vanished into the pages of the book. That was the last time that Mo ever read aloud.

For years Mo and Meggie have traveled the globe looking for rare books. Meggie, unknowing that her father was searching for a copy of the rare ‘Inkheart’. Hot on their trail, Dustfinger follows Mo’s every move in order to catch him with a copy of ‘Inkheart’ so that the silver tongue may read him back into the book. In Germany, Dustfinger catches up to the Folcharts where Mo tells him that he will never read aloud again.   Dustfinger then informs Mo that he is not the only character that has been summoned from the book. Capricorn (Serkis), the thief with his henchman had also arrived when Mo had read the book. Capricorn has also been searching for copies of the book… to destroy them. Capricorn loves the real world where he is able to rule over his subjects as he tracks down silver tongues to read him riches from the pages of the worlds great novels. Capricorn is also searching for Mo Folchart and now with the help of Dustfinger has found them.

Capricorn’s plan is to hold Flochart’s family hostage while Mo reads the ominous Shadow monster from the pages of Inkheart. With the Shadow to do his evil bidding Capricorn can rule the world. There are few surprises in store for our literary villain. Meggie Folchart has a surprise up her sleeve and Helen Mirren as Aunt Elinor provides some on-screen support.

It’s nice to have a film for the little folks with harry potter growing darker by the film and vampires roaming the streets of Seattle in broad daylight. Inkheart provides kids with some magic and get the message across to the kids in an entertaining way to keep reading the classics. Parents ‘Inkheart’ provides for a magical matinee for you to take the kids.

[overall: 3.75 stars out of 5]

Travis:

It seems that as the technology of special effects increases, the overall quality of fantasy films decreases. There are exceptions to the rule, such as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy or the ‘Harry Potter’ films, but there have been a lot of mediocre (or worse) fantasy films in the last ten years or so. So, my theory is that too many fantasy films are catastrophically sacrificing good stories for good special effects. For example, remember ‘Dragon Slayer’… awesome movie, even if it did use a stop-motion dragon, but it was well-done and the story was cool. This brings me to ‘Inkheart’.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t completely put off my Brendan Frasier. Despite his recent run of mind-numbingly bad movies, he actually does “okay” in this one. With that said, he is NOT the reason I ultimately like this film. [Quick disclaimer: Upon first exiting the theatre, I must admit I wasn’t sure if I liked this one, but I was also kind of tired from a late night and the screening was at 10:00am] In relation to the paragraph above, ‘Inkheart’ is actually one of those rare fantasy films that manages to maintain a good story with decent special effects, but doesn’t rely solely on the FX technology. The filmmakers could have easily applied much bigger and glitzy FX, but chose not to. Why… because they didn’t need to, that’s why.

Brendan Frasier plays Mortimer “Mo” Folchart, an antique book buyer who has a secret. He’s what is called a “silver tongue” and no one knows, not even his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett). A silver tongue is a rare and special person who, simply by reading the written word out loud, can make any story come to life. Unfortunately, Mo did did learn of his own ability until it was too late and as a result of reading a book called Inkheart, released a nasty villain called Capricorn. The catch is that whenever a character is pulled to life from a story, someone form our own world is sent into the story and trapped there. In this case, Mo inadvertently traps his wife Resa (Sienna Guillory) inside the Inkheart story and he’s spent every day since looking for a copy of the book so he can read her back to him.

During Mo’s quest, on which he has taken Meggie with him believing they are simply antique book shopping, they encounter a character called Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), a fire juggler with magical powers and a pet weasel. He too is from the Inkheart story, but Mo doesn’t seem to want anything to do with him. It doesn’t take long before Mo and his daughter come face-to-face with Capricorn (Andy Serkis) who wants to use Mo’s ability to bring himself fame and fortune in this “new” world he covets to dearly. Mo, Meggie and his eccentric bookworm relative Elinor (Helen Mirren) must fight for survival while finding a way to stop Capricorn’s diabolical plan to rule our world. Once Mo and Dustfinger get past their own bitter dislike of each other, they find a way to help each other fight Capricorn and his band of dim-witted thugs.

As I said before, ‘Inkheart’ has an original and interesting story that carries much of the film’s success. Serkis is a blast to watch as he takes a firm grip on being an annoyingly evil thief turned criminal mastermind. The effect used to convey characters and creatures that have been “half read” into our world by a stuttering silver tongue are simple but creatively convincing. Part of Capricorn’s evil plan includes having a savage monstrous being called The Shadow read from the Inkheart book in an attempt to rule the world. This particular effect I found to be a great example of how, even with the high technology of CGI available, a scary monstrous villain can be pulled off without overdoing it. The film is paced nicely and, while it’s not laden with special effects and non-stop action, does a good job of entertaining adults and kids alike.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]

Jeremy:

Family fantasy has had a whole heaping of peaks and valleys over few years. The genre has delivered everything from incredible (‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ and ‘Stardust’) to satisfactory (‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘The Bridge to Terabithia’) to downright unwatchable (‘Eragon’ and ‘The Golden Compass’). With ‘Inkheart’, New Line Cinemas attempts once again to do what they couldn’t do with ‘The Golden Compass’, set up a family fantasy franchise that might put them back in the black.

‘Inkheart’ is an imaginative film that sometimes tries too hard to pack in everything that made the novel it is based on such a success. In certain other aspects of the film, it doesn’t copy and paste enough from the novel. However, for all of its faults, it is a very well-done fantasy film that succeeds in facets where many other fantasy films have failed.

Mortimer “Mo† Folchart (Brenden Fraser) has a gift. Whenever he reads a story out loud, something from it comes into the real world. Likewise, something from the real world has to go into the story to replace what came out. Once, while reading a book called “Inkheart†, Mo’s wife went into the book and all kinds of leather-clad villainous vermin, led by the evil Capricorn (Andy Serkis) came out.

Accompanied by his 12-year-old daughter (Eliza Bennett), Mo has spent the last nine years searching for a copy of the book so that he can read his wife back into the real world. Capricorn and the other baddies, unfortunately, have other plans.

‘Inkheart’s biggest issue is what it decides to leave out of the screenplay. It would have taken only a couple of lines of extra dialogue, but there are no guidelines when it comes to who goes in and what comes out of the stories. Sometimes Mo, and later his daughter (not a spoiler if you’re paying any bit of attention), seems to be able to control what he pulls out. Other times it seems completely random. A little bit of rule-establishment would have gone a long way.

We also are never told enough about the book “Inkheart†. What is it about? Who are the main characters? It certainly isn’t the firebreather Dustfinger, played by the always great Paul Bettany. With his handsome face and golden locks, he certainly looks like a leading man. However, the character flip-flops between being good and bad so often that it gets frustrating trying to care for him. About “Inkheart†, we just get told about certain, secondary characters, and that is not nearly enough to make us interested.

Expository elements aside, the screenplay does a good job of packing in a whole lot of story into two hours. New Line seems to have learned from the overly open end of ‘The Golden Compass’, and ‘Inkheart’ would work well as a standalone or as the first part of a trilogy. The very ending seems a bit tacked on, but that is better than leaving us completely in the open.

The special effects in ‘Inkheart’ are topnotch. Many of the creatures that have been pulled out of the stories (ie, the flying monkeys from “Oz† and the crocodile from “Peter Pan†) look amazing. Director Iain Softley (‘K-PAX’ and ‘The Skeleton Key’) seems to know just when to use computer graphics and when to use practical effects. Even in the fully CG characters like the giant creature that makes up the film’s conclusion, the special effects are first-rate.

Speaking of CG characters, Fraser is almost passable in ‘Inkheart’. Generally, the guy is annoying beyond belief, and his mere presence is usually an indicator that the film is less than stellar. Here, he holds back on the shtick. He never screams. Just going through a movie without hearing him wail about how much he hates mummies is an ideal start.

The supporting cast is great. Serkis plays an outstanding villain. Jim Broadbent as the author of “Inkheart† plays sweet. Helen Mirren as Mo’s aunt plays sour. Even Jennifer Connelly seems to have been on set for a day to show up for a quick cameo as Dustfinger’s wife.

‘Inkheart’ is a fine film, a far above average fantasy film that serves as a nice replacement for not having the new ‘Harry Potter’ this past November. I don’t think it will sprawl out into a full-fledged franchise, and, with the ending they incorporated into the story, it doesn’t need to. Nonetheless, a decently crafted screenplay, grade-A special effects, and good acting makes ‘Inkheart’ an enjoyable, family/fantasy film that should please even those who have long given up on the genre.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]