Review: Inkheart (2009)

Director: Iain Softley (The Skeleton Key, K-PAX)

Cast: Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, Bedazzled), Eliza Bennett (Nanny McPhee), Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, The Da Vinci Code), Helen Mirren (The Queen, National Treasure: Book of Secrets), Sienna Guillory (Eragon), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, 13 Going On 30), Jim Broadbent (Iris, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), Rafi Gavron (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, 24), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind, Blood Diamond)

The Deal: Mo (Fraser) is a silvertongue, someone who can bring characters to life when they read books aloud. He discovered his ability when he accidentally brought Dustfinger (Bettany) and the evil Capricorn (Serkis) out of Inkheart, but his wife, Resa (Guillory), was transported into the book. He's spent his life with his daughter Meggie (Bennett) looking for another copy of the book, hoping to save his wife. Capricorn hopes to take over the world, but he needs a silvertongue to summon The Shadow from Inkheart, and Capricorn knows of no better reader than Mo. With an odd collection of allies, Mo and Meggie must defeat Capricorn and save Resa before it is too late.

Thoughts: The premise of the story is built upon a foundation with lots of potential. The ability of silvertongues opens the door for a vast and magical fantasy epic, but unfortunately, Inkheart fails to seize the moment. The story is mildly interesting and entertaining, but fails to adhere to its own rules set forth early on, and becomes clunky and predictable. It truly is a shame Inkheart falls so far short, as it has the recipe for the type of fantasy adventures I tend to enjoy.

I don't want to blame or rip on Brendan Fraser, but I don't think he is leading role material. In every film he's had the lead in, I don't find his performance strong enough to carry the story. Whenever I've seen him in supporting roles, his humor and talents shine, and he'd be best suited to stick with smaller roles. Bettany's performance isn't that good as well. He has the potential to be a very good actor, but I haven't seen it often, an it was rarely present here. Helen Mirren's role is small and fails to utilize her talents, and Andy Serkis remains most effective when he's not directly on screen (like the role of Gollum). It's unfair that Jennifer Connelly was promoted the way she was, as she had zero lines and had only a few 3-second flashes on screen.

It was cool to see some of literatures most fantastical creatures (a unicorn, a minotaur, flying monkeys, Toto, the ticking crocodile, etc) brought to life but they were barely used. There was so much potential with them, and none of it was tapped. 

Another problem was with the characters. I failed to find the villains terrifying, and I had no care if the "heroes" succeeded or failed. It is incredibly important that the viewer connects with at least one character, but there weren't any worth connecting with. The closest any character came was Bettany's Dustfinger. I almost felt his pain and longing, but he was so flip-floppy that I gave up trying to care.

Verdict: A slightly entertaining fantasy that fails to utilize the best fantasy elements it's presented with. All of Inkheart's potential is left untouched. ☆☆