Film Review: ‘Inkheart’

“…the power of the written word.”

I fancied a trip to the pictures last night, so had a look at the listings. This left me with a few options:

This:

I’m not a 14 year old girl.

This:

I’ve seen Keanu Reeves’ terrible acting and lack of facial expressions enough times by now.

Or this:

Haven’t seen 1 or 2, so I’ll give that a miss.

So I decided on this:

There’s something in me that doesn’t like fantasy films, but I think it’s more the idea of fantasy films. So I decided to suspend my disbelief and reminded myself that these sorts of films are always better than expected.

Check out the cast:

They got…

Him:

Her:

Thingy:

Him:

Her (who I’ve seen in something but can’t think what!?):

New Girl:

Oh, and him:

off of that:

the one who did that:

she was in it a tiny bit:

so was he:

he did the voices in that:

and was very funny in this:

So a good cast, however we all know that a good cast doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good film!

It was originally a German novel of the same name by Cornelia Funke, released in 2003.

As I suggested in the title, the film’s main underlying message was the power of the written word. In this film, George of the Jungle (GOJ) has the power to bring characters from books into the real world, when he reads aloud. The problem is however, when his daughter was a baby; he read aloud from the book Inkheart, which caused several of the book’s wicked characters, including Capricorn (Gollum), to literally come to life. But while he read them out of the book, he accidentally read new girl’s mother (recognisable face) into the story. So there are a few problems that need solving.

So did it entertain? Most definitely, it does what it sets out to do; transport you into a world of imagination, fantasy and adventure. This holds some of the most forgivable CGI I’ve seen in a long time, it was visually rich.

One of the great things about the film’s premise was that it allowed them to bring back many classic characters from past literature. There was a couple of appearances from some Wizard of Oz characters, there was a Minotaur and there was also a stray from the Arabian Nights.

I’m sure I would have got a fair few more of the references if I was a better reader, and that’s where the film also works well. It holds books in great respect and inspires the viewer to get lost in a book.

One weakness I found was the lack of development evident in GOJ’s character. There was more need for a bit of mystery; at the film’s beginning they don’t hold back in telling the viewer straight away that he possesses this power. There was no real progression or change of character, there was not very much plot when it came to GOJ. He was obviously only there because of his CV.

I was enjoying the movie a lot, but then at a certain point – it got really good. It was when they met the author (Broadbent)! This is in essence them meeting their maker. However, accurately the characters that the author had actually created, held no respect or reverence for him.

One man did not even want to see the author because he did not want to know his ‘fate’, he claimed that he was now in control saying that ‘he is not my God’.

There are also many characters who blame their author for things, ‘you can’t blame me, you wrote me this way’.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that there is a whole potential allegorical level to many aspects of this book, and it opens up many philosophical questions.

So, this film is good. I can recommend it; bring our wife, bring your kids, bring you Nan. I do warn you though, it may make you want to stop watching so many films and actually pick up a book.