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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready....
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Inkheart
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Eliza Hope Bennett, Sienna Guillory, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, Steve Speiro, John Thomson, and Jennifer Connelly Director: Iain Softley Scriptwriter: David Lindsay-Abaire from the book by Cornelia Funke New Line Cinema Rating: PG for fantasy action, scary moments and brief language Running Length: 110 minutes Oh, those days of reading aloud in school. The people who could "make it come alive" were the ones to be envied. Not so here, for Inkheart is a tale of people called Silvertongues and what they read comes alive. That's right, from The Wizard of Oz to you name it. In fact, such people "hear" the voices of characters from books so you can imagine what a headache it is to go to a library or bookstore. Chatter, chatter. Our Inkheart has Brendan Fraser (no Mummy here) as a man who brings things out of books, but when that happens, something has to go back in its place. He has a teenage daughter, but his wife disappeared years ago. Hmm, the plot thickens. The film has Fraser, a book binder, and daughter Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett) going from country to country, seemingly, just wandering, but in fact, Fraser is in search of the book, "Inkheart." This is what he was reading about the time his wife disappeared. Meggie is tired of wandering, so Brendan takes her to visit her great aunt (a wonderfully done Helen Mirren), who is a book collector, referring to the tomes as her children. While there, a gang tries a kidnapping and we find that there are "Inkheart" people scattered throughout Europe. This was a mass migration from the book. There is a fire-eater named Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) who wants to go back to his family, the evil Capricorn (Andy Serkis), his henchmen Flatnose (Steve Speiro), and others who have writing on their faces. It seems as though if they don't come through "whole," part of the page comes with them. Eventually, Fraser, Meggie, and Dustfinger are back inside "Inkheart" (the book) to try to find a solution to everyone's dilemma. Capricorn wants power and gold, Fraser and Meggie want to find Resa, their wife/mother, and there is even a tagalong from the Den of Thieves, Farid (Rafi Gavron). He doesn't know where in the world he is by now.As if that wasn't enough, the real author of _Inkheart_ (Jim Broadbent) is there, too and everyone is trying to get him to write better situations for them, for example, Flatnose wants a straight nose. Have I mentioned The Shadow, more evil (is it possible?) than Capricorn? All of the above eventually makes sense and is interesting to match together, though the middle section of the film lags. This involves Meggie and Fraser arguing about the same thing, she says she isn't a kid anymore and he says she is. Special effects are fairly well done and Helen Mirren's snappy comebacks make some of the other dialogue ponderous. If only everyone could have shot back as she does. Mirren is the "Auntie Mame" of this generation. Brendan Fraser is making a name for himself by going into fantasy roles, and with the helpless look he sometimes gets, copes well with the near-impossible. Eliza Hope Bennett is fine as Meggie and Andy Serkis as Capricorn looks like a younger version of Bob Hoskins. Paul Bettany's fire-eater is a tale by itself and watch for a cameo by his real-life wife, Jennifer Connelly. Animals steal some of the scenes, particularly a ferret with a mind of its own and Toto from The Wizard of Oz. I kept waiting for Rhett Butler to come into the story, but no such luck. As it stands, Inkheart is clever work. Copyright 2009 Marie Asner
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