Movie Review: Inkheart
Photo by New Line Cinema
Congratulations! You’ve made it to year two of a global pandemic where public spaces are iffy zones of COVID potential! More importantly, if you’re reading this, you made it through the first week of the spring semester! Now, under the assumption that you don’t have any homework (don’t put off that assigned reading!), you’re probably going to spend this weekend scrolling aimlessly through Netflix, searching for your newest flick to aimlessly disassociate in front of watch. Well, look no further than the fantasy classic Inkheart.
Initially released in theaters in the long past year of 2008, the movie is a latecomer to the Netflix queue. Starring the indomitable Brendan Fraser, the supporting cast is comprised of big-screen classics, Paul Bettany, most recently known for his heart-wrenching portrayal of Marvel superhero, Vision; Gollum himself, Andy Serkis (My precious); the iconic Helen Mirren, known for biopics such as The Queen, Woman in Gold, and Caligula; and the Labyrinth’s own Jennifer Connelly. Adapted from Cornelia Funke’s original trilogy, the cast does a wonderful job of depicting the heartfelt story at the center of the plot while introducing a witty sense of humor within the confines of a PG rating. Don’t let the rating fool you. While it's not a Netflix original, it is by no means the sentimental fluff of a Care Bears movie. Remember, The Karate Kid (1984) was rated PG too!
Inkheart depicts a world much like our own, where a man named Mo (played by Fraser) has the gift to read characters into existence, at the cost that someone or something from the real world must then go into the story as a replacement. Mo's gift becomes an issue when, one night during a bedtime story for his daughter, Meggie (played by Dynasty’s Eliza Bennett), the villainous Capricorn (Serkis) is summoned into the real world, and Mo’s wife, Teresa "Resa" (played by Sienna Guillory), is brought into the story as his replacement. The father and daughter duo spend the next decade searching for the book for which the movie is named in order to try and exchange the evil Capricorn (take that as you will astrology lovers) for Meggie’s mother. They run into a sea of classical characters along the way, featuring characters from The Wizard of Oz, while Meggie discovers she shares her father’s fantastical gift.
It seems like a simple idea, with the potential to get old fairly quickly. However, the movie keeps things interesting with conversations about common tropes within these fables and a host of existential questions. Such as, if you could read a book with your life’s story in it, would you want to know the ending? The questions and references to reality keep the story fresh and interesting, and the plot is only enhanced by the incredible acting brought forth by its star-studded cast and the special effects that have, for the most part, aged with grace. One relevant criticism of the movie may be found in its somewhat rushed ending, which could be considered a natural consequence of adapting a book trilogy into a singular one-hour and forty-six-minute movie but an unattractive quality for a feature film. However, I have found that if you shut your brain off (which you should be more than able to do after this week) and just allow yourself to enjoy the ride, you will find a feature that might not leap out of the pages but does come to life on the silver screen.