Inkheart (Warner Brothers Pictures)
Brendan Is the Family Guy
Brendan Fraser has certainly become he go to guy for family entertainment. With Journey To the Center of the Earth and in many ways the Mummy series, he has become family friendly. Now with his latest movie Inkheart he seals his fate. If he doesnt do a more adult movie soon he is going to be stuck in this genre forever.
Now there isnt anything wrong with doing family movies and they are certainly needed. But in the case of Inkheart the movie just isnt very good. Only the youngest and most non-discriminating kids will enjoy it for its visuals alone. The rest of us will wish we were somewhere else instead of sitting watching this boring adventure.
The film, based on the book of the same name, concerns book expert Mo Folchart (Fraser). He lives with his teenage daughter Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett) and takes her with him on trips to buy books. He constantly seems to be searching for a specific book.
On a trip to Europe they run into a man called Dustfinger (Paul Bettany). He seems to want Mo to do something special for him, but Mo and Meggie race away and head for Mos Aunt Elinors home. At Aunt Elinors (Helen Mirren) they are attacked by thugs and taken to a far away village on the top of a mountain.
There Mo learns of the fate of his wife (Sienna Guillory) and what he has to do to get her back. It involved bringing characters in a book to life and putting other characters back in the pages. Yeah I know, it is as annoying as it sounds.
For a film that is advertised to be an action adventure, this is a pretty tepid story. Fraser never seems to break a sweat and his relationship with his daughter, his wife and his aunt are all the same friendly but not overly so. Bettany has some good moments as the book character eager to get back into the pages. There is also a fun cameo by Jennifer Connelly (Bettanys real life wife) as Dustfingers beloved Roxanne.
What is really a mystery is why did Oscar winner Helen Mirren take a role in this film. Her talent is totally wasted as she plays an eccentric aunt. Any one of a thousand other actresses could have played this part.
The movie is rated PG for mild profanity and mild violence.
The ending to this movie is not to be believed. I wont give away the resolution but if it were all just a matter of making up a story then that could have been done much earlier in the film and saved us all a lot of time and trouble. Most adult members of the audience are just glad it is all over.
At one time Fraser had a career as a serious actor. It is time he got back to basics.
I scored Inkheart a stained 4 out of 10.
