Off My Shelf: Inkheart (2009)

Inkheart is one of those movies I had always kind of wanted to check out (because it had an intriguing plot) but never had the opportunity to do so. Then, one day, Mr. Hall was out of town -- and I found Inkheart on Amazon Prime -- and thus arrived my opportunity.



The Plot: Brendan Fraser and his daughter travel the world. No Mom in the picture, as she disappeared some nine years back. He is apparently a famous book repairman (because that's a thing) -- and, it quickly turns out, he has a strange, mystical power: when he reads aloud from a book, whatever he's reading about comes out of the book (but, to balance things, somebody real goes into the book). Well, apparently that's what happened to Mom nine years ago -- while some baddies came out of the book he was reading, Mom got sucked into the book. He would have tried to read her out again, but the darn book (Inkheart) got destroyed, and is stupidly rare and out of print, so he's been travelling the world (as a book repairman, see?) trying to find a copy -- meanwhile the baddies are trying to track him down because they want more stuff read out of books by him. Like, treasure and more baddies.


Isn't that an interesting and promising concept? I thought so. I thought it sounded most intriguing, and went into this movie with high hopes.

Acting: The acting was okay. Although Brendan Fraser has the main spot on the poster (I gave him sunglasses above because his face had been creepily photoshopped by the person who made this cover... There's something just not right about it. Maybe it's just me...) but he's not the main character. His daughter is. And she's fine. Pleasant, not obnoxious. Perhaps just a trifle bland. And I'd say that's the main problem with Brendan Fraser, too -- in spite of his character's amazing magical talent, he's basically "generic man" with zero personality traits, outside vague bravery and fatherliness. Please note, I'm not blaming either Brendan Fraser or the young lady who played his daughter for their lack of personality -- because it was the writing. Ironically, in a story about personalities that come out of a book, in this movie that came out of a book, the personalities just weren't there.
[image error] "Encino Man was such a long time ago..."There were three other notable actors in this movie -- Andy Serkis as "Villain", Helen Mirren as "Outspoken Aunt", and Jim Broadbent as "Bland Grandma Jim Broadbent." Andy Serkis was probably my favorite, if only because, as the villain, he was actually allowed to have a personality. Helen Mirren had a personality -- but only in a sort of two-dimensional "I am the Outspoken Aunt! I'm going to say things loud and complain a lot!" sense. Jim Broadbent was not given any significant acting to do, and was dressed like a grandma.

Brendan checks to see if Jim's woman-y pink
scarf is really as soft as it looks.Concept And This Film's Main Problem: In a nutshell: this film has a really promising concept... on which it consistently fails to fully deliver.  When the stakes start getting high, they deflate them. And for having the power to bring any mystical, magical, wonderful creatures to life... it just doesn't seem like we see a lot of mystical, magical, wonderful creatures. Oh, I could name you a handful that turn-up... but when you're watching it, you're just not overwhelmed. Not even whelmed.
Not a photo of actors sitting around between scenes doing nothing -
an actual scene. Of characters sitting around doing nothing.You can name a lot of separate parts of this movie that ought to be interesting. There's a guy who carries a weasel and can juggle fire. One of Ali-Baba's forty thieves becomes a main character. There are flying monkeys and unicorns. THERE IS A GIANT SMOKE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS MOVIE. And you know what? It's just not exciting and I can't entirely tell you why. Maybe it's just that there isn't enough of that stuff? Or that it's treated in too blase a fashion by the main characters? Or maybe it's just that too much of this film is spent with the main characters just travelling from place to place and not actually experiencing interesting things. Then there's the problem that certain characters do things that simply don't make sense from a motivational standpoint. And we're told about many interesting situations -- that we never actually see.

This is an exciting scene. Maybe the only exciting scene.But probably the main problem with this movie is that the main plot issue is easily resolved, rather than being drawn out for tension. I'm going to spoil it for you: remember how I mentioned that the Brendan Fraser's wife, the mother of our main character, got read into a book nine years ago, and they didn't know whether she was alive or dead? WELL, LESS THAN HALF WAY THROUGH THE MOVIE, we discover that she's already been read out of the book by somebody else, and is safely back in the real world! Granted, she was read out in a crappy fashion without her voice -- and she's basically being held as a kitchen servant by the villain.

But think about this: somebody tells you that your Mom is trapped in a horrible place, and nobody knows if she's dead or alive. How does that make you feel, compared to, "We don't know where your Mom is... but she's basically fine and I'm sure we'll track her down eventually." THAT is what this movie gives us. It stops the main tension in the movie dead in its tracks needlessly. If they had revealed at the end that she was out of the book and okay -- that would have been fine. It would have felt a bit on the overly convenient side -- but at least we would have had that tension throughout the movie. Instead, we're treated to an overly convenient resolution right in the middle of the movie. It simply kills the film!

Speaking of fantasy movies like The Labyrinth -- Jennifer
Connelly is in this movie. This still picture is her entire scene.I wanted very badly to like this movie. I've been on a fantasy-movie kick recently, watching The Hobbit and Neverending Story and Labyrinth and the like -- and I wanted another movie in a similar vein. But despite a good cast, this movie falls drastically short of being a success. Oh, I won't say it's a terrible film, because it wasn't vile, it wasn't obnoxious -- it wasn't the type of film that I would be ashamed to show to my child. However, if I put this movie in, my child is probably going to get up and leave the room about halfway through, because this movie is just plain dull.

I can't in good conscience recommend this movie. But it's not terrible enough to tell you to avoid. In the end, yet again, all I can say is...