TWO NEW FILMS TRY TO GIVE YOUNG PUNTERS WHAT THEY WANT – WHATEVER THAT MAY BE
NIM’S ISLAND *
[for kids: ***]
DIRECTED BY Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett
STARRING Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler
US 2008 95 mins.
MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM ***
DIRECTED BY Zach Helm
STARRING Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Zach Mills, Jason Bateman
US 2007 93 mins.
Kids: what do they want? The answer to that question – in a film sense, of course – is a billion-Euro industry. If you had the answer, you could write your own ticket. Trouble is, everyone assumes the answer must be ‘children’s films’, and I’m not so sure. Very young children love cartoons, of course, but cartoons are a genre unto themselves. As they get older, they reject all that ‘baby stuff’ – but most self-respecting kids also reject the idea of replacing Spongebob Squarepants with Generic Child Hero. Instead they want to watch what grown-ups watch, leaving live-action children’s films in uncomfortable limbo (fortunately, what grown-ups watch is increasingly child-centred anyway; paging Harry Potter). Both films reviewed this week are live-action, both were flops at the (US and Europe) box-office. Also at the multiplex is Speed Racer – another live-action kidpic, another flop. Hollywood won’t give up trying to target kids, but the little bastards are slippery.
Nim’s Island smacks of desperation, going for a little-bit-of-everything approach – a little comedy, a little adventure, a hint of scary and a touch of the educational – because hey, who can figure kids out anyway? It stars Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine fame, fast becoming the go-to girl for plucky child heroines, and Jodie Foster, who’s won two Oscars and also has two young children (coincidence? er, probably). Foster plays her part – an agoraphobic writer – very seriously, resisting the temptation to mug and preen like some other Oscar-winning actors (this means you, Dustin Hoffman). Maybe it’s because motherhood has taught her that kids appreciate a straight face when you’re telling a story, or maybe it’s just because Foster is a very serious actress. She’s always serious. She could be talking out of her buttocks, like Ace Ventura, and still look serious.
She may be a little too serious as Alex(andra) Rover, writer of adventure novels featuring the dashing action hero Alex Rover (bet the critics had a laugh over that one). Her obsessive phobia of the outside world may be a little too intense, and her adventures as she tries to get from San Francisco to Nim’s South Pacific island – getting increasingly hysterical on planes, boats and helicopters – are gruelling rather than comical. Meanwhile, Nim herself is all alone on the island, crying for her Daddy who’s lost at sea, trapped in a leaky boat with no mast, no radio and hungry sharks circling ominously.
Nim’s Island sets up these grim situations – then casually moves to something else, like animal shenanigans (Nim has a small menagerie, like the kids in Flipper) or a horde of overweight Australian tourists landing on the island. Maybe kids can handle this, with their short attention spans, but I found myself thrown by the mix of moods (for one thing, I couldn’t help wondering if poor Dad had been eaten by the sharks yet). Made by Walden Media – they’re also behind the Narnia films – who specialise in clean-cut values and positive Messages, the film tries hard to be virtuous. Nim reads a lot of books, and tells her pets she plans to repel the invaders “like the Peloponnese” she read about in the encyclopaedia – but her actual plan involves tired Home Alone-isms like a farting sea-lion.
Another strange contradiction: the film takes care to spell everything out when it comes to plotting, yet is quite blas? about mixing fantasy and reality. When Nim gets an e-mail signed “Alex Rover” – she’s a big fan of the books – there’s a shot of the dust-jacket to remind us who Alex Rover is, even though we just found out a few minutes earlier (guess the kiddie audience is assumed to be easily distracted), yet when Jodie talks to “Alex” there’s nothing to explain that he’s fictional and it’s all in her mind. Maybe it’s a given that kids have Imagination, and will figure this stuff out without being prompted – or maybe the lines between real and virtual have become blurred in today’s wired world anyway. It’s noteworthy how e-mail (and the reality of people one meets through e-mail) is taken for granted, even in a kids’ movie.
Actually, I think kids will like Nim’s Island; it’s got that Roald Dahl mix of no-punches-pulled adventure and grotesque comedy. As for me … well, it just made me restless. This may seem like a digression, but it never ceases to amaze me just how many films are out there. Just the other day, a colleague raved about two titles I’d never heard of, Gabriel and What Love Is, which she’d picked up at the video club; both, it turns out, went straight to video – an entire sub-category comprising hundreds of films a year, some of which are bound to be excellent. Lots of people watch nothing but TV shows, many of which – Lost, The Wire, The Sopranos – are equivalent to films in terms of acting and production values. If you have the cash and inclination to buy DVDs, you could spend a month watching nothing but French dramas or Chinese historicals. Those who download (legally or illegally) dig up more than they could ever watch, from the latest blockbusters to Mexican vampire movies of the 1950s. Why, with all this to choose from, should someone end up at the Cineplex watching Nim’s Island? Why indeed.
I thought the same about Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, but the film won me over. To be sure, there are problems: the ending is lame, and the whole thing might’ve worked better with different stars – or at least without Dustin Hoffman, who’s hammy and insufferable as Mr. Magorium (his shuffling walk also seems to channel Rain Man at one point). Cutesy things take place in the titular Emporium, a magical toyshop: there are living dolls and figurines, a little girl is chased by a goose, etc. Glibly inspiring ‘carpe diem’s are trotted out according to kidpic convention: “Your life is an occasion. Rise to it!”.
Yet there’s something beguiling here – a goofiness born of introversion, a hint of the mixture of sweetness and reserve found in Japanese master-animator Hayao Miyazaki, who made Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle (the revolving door with different settings that open into different rooms is a straight steal from Castle).
Just about everyone in the film is “stuck”, giving a bittersweet tinge to the cutesy goings-on. Natalie Portman is stuck working in the Emporium when she really wants to make music. Jason Bateman is stuck working as an accountant, having repressed his imagination (Mr. Magorium calls him “Mutant”). Then there’s our kid hero (played by Zach Mills) a solitary boy who collects hats, has no friends and supplies a self-consciously zany voice-over: “Some called him a genius. Others called him eccentric. This guy from Detroit inexplicably called him ‘Steve’…”
The kid and Bateman bond through their mutual emotional reticence – a kid who’s a freak and a man who’s a “mutant” (at one point, they communicate through a pane of glass by writing messages and holding them up to the glass). Throughout, there’s the veiled acknowledgment that Imagination isn’t necessarily the Life-affirming force shown in corporate kidpics like Robots – that in fact it’s more often a companion for sad little boys living too much inside their own heads. I don’t want to oversell Mr. Magorium. Much of it is conventional, Magorium coming off like a poor man’s Willy Wonka – but there’s a certain rueful charm lapping at the edges, something quirky and even melancholy. The main Message is “Believe in Magic”, which we’ve heard a zillion times before in children’s films – but the secondary Message is “Learn to Accept Death”, which we certainly haven’t. Do kids want to hear it? Who knows?
NEW DVD RELEASES
Here’s our regular look at the more interesting titles released on DVD in the US and UK over the past few months. Some may be available to rent from local video clubs, or you can always order over the Internet: dozens of suppliers, but http://www.amazon.com (for US) and http://www.play.com (for UK) are among the most reliable, if not necessarily the cheapest. Prices quoted don’t include shipping. Note that US discs are ‘Region 1’, and require a multi-region player.
NEW FILMS
THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING: Splendid three-hour Egyptian drama, long but briskly paced, with a Dickensian density of stories and characters. No extras (but still recommended). [UK]
ENCHANTED: Surprisingly charming Disney comedy, in the usual extras-laden package. Featurettes, deleted scenes, plus a strange 5-minute cartoon called ‘Pip’s Predicament’, featuring the chipmunk from the movie. [US/UK]
FLASHPOINT: High-profile Hong Kong cop drama, with some martial-arts fight scenes. 2-disc set, with lots of extras. [UK]
JIMMY CARTER: MAN FROM PLAINS: Not a biography of the former US President, but a documentary on his recent controversial tour to promote his book on Palestine (which is quite anti-Israel, by American standards). Good stuff for political junkies. [US]
A CRUDE AWAKENING: Another political documentary, looking at the imminent depletion of the world’s oil resources – and asking if Western governments are systematically lying about it. Extras include further interviews and a “bonus chapter” on Petro-states (i.e. economies wholly dependent on oil). [UK]
OLD FILMS
LA NOTTE (1961): Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece in a great new version from the Masters of Cinema label. No real extras, but you do get a 56-page booklet on the film, including the transcript of a lengthy interview with Antonioni. [UK]
TCM ARCHIVES: FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD, VOL. 2: Five films from the early 1930s, before the Hays Code started to bite, when Hollywood was still raunchy and full of life. Highlights are ‘Night Nurse’ (1931) and ‘Three On a Match’ (1932), the latter featuring a young Bette Davis (albeit in the least interesting role). Extras include a documentary, ‘Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood’. [US]
GANGSTERS COLLECTION, VOL. 3: More 1930s madness: a set of six films, mostly starring the irrepressible James Cagney. Highlights include ‘Picture Snatcher’ (1933) and ‘Lady Killer’ (1933). All films come with supporting shorts, cartoons and other extras. [US]
THE ROUND-UP (1965): Chilling vision of totalitarian rule by Hungarian director Miklos Jancso, set in the 19th century (though just as relevant to the 20th). Includes a 20-minute interview with the now 86-year-old Jancso. [UK]
