DVD review: “Inkheart”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Inkheart”
The magic is muddled, but the imaginative fantasy tale “Inkheart” conjures up a plethora of intriguing characters, enchanted adventures and an infectious love for reading.
Brendan Fraser stars as Mo Folchart, a bookbinder keeping a secret from his 12-year-old daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett) and his literature-lovingaunt Elinor (Helen Mirren). He is a Silvertongue and can bring characters from books to life when he reads aloud.
But when someone comes out of a book, someone also goes in. and Mo has no control over this exchange. His wife Resa (Sienna Guillory) was pulled into the pages of a fantasy world nine years earlier, while he was reading from a book called “Inkheart.”
Since, Mo has trekked across Europe looking for another copy of “Inkheart” in the hopes of rescuing Resa. Meggie doesn’t know his true goal – she believes her mother abandoned them – but she’s guessed more than he realizes.
Mo’s secret is revealed when they cross paths with the cowardly, fire-wielding juggler Dustfinger (the great Paul Bettany), who came out of “Inkheart” when Resa went in and desperately wants to return to his family inside the novel.
Dustfinger betrays Mo to another refugee from the book, the wicked Capricorn (Andy Serkis), who wants to use Mo’s gift to unleash the frightful Shadow on the real world.
Mo and Meggie also encounter the book’s eccentric author (Jim Broadbent), a brave youth Mo reads out of “Arabian Nights (Rafi Gavron), and a host of creatures from classic tales, from the flying monkeys of “The Wizard of Oz” to the clock-ticking crocodile from “Peter Pan.”
Adapted from Cornelia Funke’s popular young adult novel, “Inkheart” has been significantly altered, and not for the better, ccording to my son. The movie is peppered with plot holes, the pacing is choppy, but the adventure still is worth taking.
DVD extra: Bennett reads a favorite passage from “Inkheart” not included in the film while Funke’s illustrations are shown.
- BAM
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