Movie 97: Inkheart

Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) discovers that when he reads from a book he can draw the characters in to the real world. Tragically, as his wife then vanishes in to the book. The evil characters that he draws out destroy his copy of the story and he goes on a quest to find another so he can get his wife out. Years later he’s still on his quest, but the bad guys have other plans for the ‘silvertongue’

As I’ve said before, I like Brendan Fraser. He seems to just make these family adventure type films but he’s really good at it. While Inkheart isn’t amazing, it is a good family adventure.

It’s quite a clever concept which allows the script/novel writers to use pretty much any character from literature that they choose too. Unfortunately they don’t go for all that much variety here, but the one book they lie heavily on (besides the fake book of the title) is The Wizard Of Oz. I love The Wizard of Oz. And while I could nit pick that they get the flying monkeys wrong and go along with the movie version (the book versions are more intelligent and not really evil) that’s an understandable think to do as world wide people are more familiar with the film.

The cast is all good. The aforementioned Fraser does his thing, more seriously than normal as his character isn’t really in it for the yuks. He’s a single father trying to get his wife back. Andy Serkis in non heavily made up or CGI’d form for once is a very good Capricorn, a big bully who’s not as tough as he wants everyone to think. He’s surrounded by comedy henchmen including Matt King who comes across as a semi-twin for Mackenzie Crook, which gives the henches a similar feel to the pirates from the Caribbean. Jim Broadbent, as the books author, feels a fair bit like Slughorn here too though this was a year earlier than his Potter turn. So while this doesn’t directly borrow from children’s films in the same way as it borrows from books, it has the same over all vibe.

Paul Bettany’s Dustfinger is a reluctant hero type who never acts truly heroic but eventually gets there. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but I’m pretty sure he shows those kind of characteristics early on. He wants back in to the book, but is also terrified as he dies at the end of it. It’s a very rounded portrail of a character that could have been terrible. He blows fire out of his hands and has a ferret for a best mate after all…

And to add some class, there’s Helen Mirren as the feisty granny who loves books more than people. It’s Helen Mirren. She’d be good in a Tellytubbies movie. And if this is worth watching for anything, its worth watching for (SPOILER) the shot of Helen Mirren coming to the rescue on the back of a Unicorn with a minotaur and flying monkeys. Name one other movie that gives you THAT!

We just missed one, but there’s another couple coming up. So if Inkheart is on, consider this a good bank holiday watch that will shut kids up and keep you entertained too.

Next up: 88 Minutes