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Inkheart — Our Review

Item published by Ryan on 9th Dec 2008.
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Today we had the opportunity to see New Line Cinema's (NLC) movie Inkheart, based on the Inkworld trilogy by the German author Cornelia Funke. People will doubtlessly point out that this is yet another fantasy trilogy which New Line Cinema has adapted after their successful Lord of the Rings trilogy, and considering the below-par performance of The Golden Compass (TGC) in the US this observation might not necessarily lead to positive expectations. However, I should start off by saying that there are a few big differences between the two properties.

The Golden Compass book handles some huge concepts: innocence versus experience, the origin of consciousness, and obedience without question are among those concepts. Inkheart is a much more straightforward book with a much more linear concept at its core: it's a book about reading a story, and the power of story reading itself. Inkheart tells the story of Meggie and her father Mo - a pair with the unique attributes of a "silvertongue," but not that brand which tricks armoured bear kings, rather the kind of "silvertongue" who can bring fictional characters and elements to life by reading aloud. With a true father, daughter, and their relations at its core cast rather than a happenstance collection of orphans, panserbjorne, and witches, the fantasy element of Inkheart immediately becomes more family-oriented and less epic in scale.

Aside from the obvious differences in story between The Golden Compass and Inkheart, Inkheart's Director, Iain Softley, had a much more organic approach to creating his movie. Only two large-scale CGI effects appear during the movie - very well put together and integrated with the movie's sets, but in the age of epic battles with sweeping CGI scenes stampeding before audiences, if you can't handle a ferret with a little glue keeping his costume horns on, then maybe Inkheart isn't for you; Inkheart is family fantasy over epic fantastical.

Lacking the same demands as The Golden Compass in terms of having uncontroversial source material and no pressing need to create a parallel world with CGI sets, the true question of Inkheart became this: Cornelia Funke's "silvertongue" can bring stories to life, can Director Iain Softley do the same?

Our short verdict is that the movie is pretty true to the book, and will certainly appeal to the existing fans of Cornelia Funke's book. The longer story - outside of the book itself - is that Inkheart is enjoyably down-to-earth as a fantasy movie, even where its flaws show through.

The film has a very engaging feel, doubtlessly due in part to the fact that the director Iain Softley used as much "real" scenery as possible. Keeping in contact with the book's author Cornelia Funke, Screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire managed to keep the majority of the story's original elements of charm while bolstering some roles with little character quips. One change that fans of Inkheart will notice in the movie's opening is that "Silvertongue" Mo, instead of simply being able to accidentally read characters to life from books, can also hear those characters speaking to him from within the books themselves - quite a nuisance for a man with an occupation as a bookbinder!

The movie advances with Mo and his daughter inevitably thrown from one circumstance into another, with the villainous Capricorn at the core and the ambiguous Dustfinger often setting events in motion. As far as the cast goes, author Cornelia Funke may have literally been writing Mo's role to suit the actor Brendan Fraser, but Andy Serkis as Capricorn is distinguishably the first character of serious note. Not one to be trifled with but not such an evil villain to send parents with screaming children running from the theatre, Serkis' Capricorn is the perfection of stylishly scary, threatening without the actual need to commit dramatic acts of on screen violence; in any case, who would be foolish enough to go against him? Capricorn waxes lyrical on the beauty of duct tape and, after bidding his "silvertongue" to steal away a particular fairy tale princess from within her bookbinding, the dark-hearted villain announces her fate with delight: "Throw her into the dungeon, and give her a haircut!" Our nameless princess is, of course, that famed Rapunzel.

Brendan Fraser and Eliza Bennett, in the lead roles of Mo and Meggie, make a believable pair as father and daughter. Not an Oscar-worthy performance, but not weak either. Played by Paul Bettany, Dustfinger rounds out the remainder of the main characters. Despite a flat start for his character, Bettany walks the line well and doesn't disappoint with Dustfinger.

Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, and Rafi Gavron make up the secondary cast. Mirren, who looked to poet Edith Sitwell rather than the character Aunt Elinor for her inspiration, makes the largest character change from book to film. Her portrayal of Aunt Elinor stems on stereotypical book nerd sometimes, but she is well supported in her role and is noteworthy as an actress. Broadbent shines in his quirky kid-in-a-candy store role as Fenoglio, the author of Inkheart who discovers his characters have come to life. "Look, it's Basta!" He remarks joyously while Basta - clearly his own black mark on the bad guy scale - holds a knife to Fenoglio's throat.

The movie's soundtrack comes from the same Javier Navarrete who wrote the score to Pan's Labyrinth. The scenes sweep by mountainous regions and the music swells. Nothing spectacularly complex as in The Golden Compass, but it's an enjoyable soundtrack that isn't overbearing on the heartfelt imagery of chords.

The movie might be aimed at the younger generation, but there enough jokes and scraps of symbolism strewn through the story which appeal to adults. An example of the latter is found in one of the final scenes, where Capricorn, dressed all in black, faces off with Meggie dressed in a white ceremonial dress.

Overall, we give Inkheart a 7/10. It's a family movie and one that is refreshingly distinct from the other holiday fare of Kris Kringle's and reindeer, so it is a shame that US and wide-release cinemas won't be seeing Inkheart until late January. The screenwriting does leave something to be desired of a few characters in terms of their development and story arcs, but this may be a quality levelled at the book itself as a very linear narrative. A very faithful translation from book to screen, Inkheart may not have the epic visual battles and struggles of some of the bigger fantasy films, but what it does have is a nice sense of timelessness, and what better to say of storytelling than that very quality.

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