REVIEW: Inkheart

STARRING: Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 01/23/09 DATE SCREENED: 01/17/09 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

Brendan Fraser, fresh off killing The Mummy film series, returns to lighter family fare in Inkheart. Based on a children’s novel of the same name, the film adaptation was actually written with him in mind. He is friends with the book’s author, Cornelia Funke, and she wouldn’t allow the film to be made without him. Originally filmed in 2006/2007, Inkheart was initially scheduled for a Christmas 2007 release. When a movie sits on the shelf for over a year, that’s usually not a good sign.

Fraser stars as Mo Folchart, a mythical ‘Silvertongue’. A ‘Silvertongue’ is a person who can pull characters out of a book by reading it aloud. The catch is that every time a character comes out of a book, someone is snatched into the book as a replacement. While reading the book Inkheart aloud to his daughter Meggie, the villain Capricorn is pulled out of the book while his wife Resa is pulled in. As the years go on, Mo and Meggie travel the world looking for another copy of Inkheart, with the hopes that he can somehow read Resa out of the book. Meanwhile Capricorn has found another Silvertongue, and is creating an army of characters and creatures pulled form various books (mostly Inkheart). Dustfinger, another character that Mo had accidentally read out of Inkheart, finds Mo just when he has found another copy of Inkheart. Dustfinger attemptsr to convince Mo to read him back into the book. When Mo refuses, Dustfinger immediately helps Capricorn capture Mo, along with his daughter and aunt (Helen Mirren). With the help of a boy named Farid, who was read out of Arabian Knights, they must somehow escape to find another copy of Inkheart and read these villains back into the book to save Resa.

I do find the premise of Inkheart interesting, and it’s fun to see characters from books you know read into the “real world”. Dorothy’s dog Toto and the flying monkeys are read out of the Wizard of Oz. In general, I’m a fan of the Fantasy film genre. The problem is that this movie is just plain boring. The story moves from point 'A' to 'B' in a completely predictable way. Fraser gives you nothing as Mo, and Helen Mirren makes a lame attempt at being the comic relief. The final climax of the film, featuring the ominous creature The Shadow, is the only exciting part of the movie. But I was fighting with my eyelids waiting to get to that point. The movie should have somehow focused more on the daughter Meggie than her father. Kids always play the main role in a good fantasy film. Recent fantasy films that I have enjoyed, like Chronicles of Narnia or Spiderwick Chronicles, aren’t about the kids parents. Another key to a good fantasy film is the special effects. Inkheart seems to have spent their entire special effects budget creating The Shadow. The rest of the effects are completely mediocre or non existent. There is a minotaur in the movie that you barely get to see because it’s obviously just a big guy in a suit. This movie sat on the shelf for so long because it’s not any good. Not worth more than a Saturday afternoon family viewing when it comes on cable.