Posted on March 3, 2008 at 5:12 pm
There’s nothing harder to get right in a movie than whimsy. And there are few clumsier crashes when it goes wrong. What could have been a charmingly whimsical children’s book becomes an arch and sugary movie, its failures of tone and timing hitting its lightweight storyline like a blast of cold air on a fragile souffle. This is one flat souffle.
Posted on February 29, 2008 at 9:27 am
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG for thematic elements, some innuendo and language. |
| Profanity: | Mild language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Tense emotional confrontations, some mild violence |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | February 29, 2008 |
This off-beat and uneven fairy tale has something in common with its heroine — an uncertain incongruity. That heroine is Penelope (Christina Ricci), an educated, wealthy young woman with a loving heart and the nose of a pig. More of a snout, actually. While it is actually kind of cute, Penelope’s prospective suitors are so horrified by it that one after the other they leap out of her mansion through the window, wanting to get away so fast they do not have time to take the stairs and leave by the door.
The pig nose is the result of a generation-spanning curse. Knowing that the curse can be broken if Penelope is loved and accepted by her equal, her parents (Richard E. Grant and Catherine O’Hara) keep her hidden away and parade dozens of suitable suitors in front of Penelope’s two-way mirror. If they can just keep her indoors until the curse is broken, they think she can have a normal life.
But being kept inside like a hothouse flower (the production design includes bell jars and a terrarium) is not normal. And so, as all captive princesses in fairy tales must, she runs away. And as all romantic comedy leading ladies must, she meets a prince with a secret (James McAvoy).
Posted on December 24, 2007 at 7:54 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | 4th - 6th Grades |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG for some action/peril, mild language and brief smoking. |
| Profanity: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Social drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Wartime violence, references to offscreen wounds and sad death, guns, some peril |
| Diversity Issues: | Class issues |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 25, 2007 |
In the grand tradition of “he followed me home — can I keep him?” movies, we have seen movies about children who are brought to adventure and understanding through dogs, horses, cats, a whale, a dolphin, dragons, geese, and an extra-terrestrial. But this imaginative family fantasy-adventure is the first movie in my memory about a boy and his very own Loch Ness monster.
Angus (Alex Etel) is a young boy in World War II Scotland, the son of the housekeeper of a large estate. He finds what he thinks is a rock but it turns out to be an egg. He calls the creature who hatches “Crusoe.”
Posted on December 20, 2007 at 6:00 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Adult |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for graphic bloody violence. |
| Profanity: | Brief strong language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking by adults, child gets drunk |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extreme, graphic, explicit violence, serial killer, cannibalism, child is beaten, child sentenced to hang |
| Diversity Issues: | Class issues |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 21, 2007 |
There could be no better match for the gothic saga of the barber who slit men’s throats and the baker who made their bodies into pies than director Tim Burton, the master of the macabre. Here working with Johnny Depp, his favorite leading man, and Helena Bonham-Carter, his off- and on-screen muse, Burton creates a vast world of Victorian gothic menace that ideally sets off Stephen Sondheim’s grimly intricate lyrics.
Posted on December 18, 2007 at 12:14 pm
This is an enchanting story that lives up to the promise of a “once upon a time beginning,” filled with romance, adventure, magic, and wit. It has witch sisters who need to find a fallen star to make the potion that gives them eternal youth, prince brothers who want to find it because the jewel that knocked it out of the sky will determine which of them will be king, cloud pirates who sail in a flying ship, and a unicorn.
Tristan (Charlie Cox) promises to bring back a fallen star to win the hand of the girl he loves. To find it, he must cross the wall that divides his village from the magical land of Stormhold on the other side. It turns out that he has a connection to Stormhold that he did not know. And it turns out that the fallen star is not an it but a she — the star has a human form, a woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes). And so begins a journey that will include sword fights and transformations, captures and escapes, bickering and kisses, encounters with rascals, villains, and imprisoned princesses, and reunions with unexpected lost connections.
Director Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) blends romance, action, and comedy with brilliantly imagined visual effects, seasoning fairy tale enchantment with a splash of modern sensibility. Peter O’Toole as the dying king, Robert DeNiro as the pirate captain with a surprising hobby, and Ricky Gervais as a dealer in stolen goods, and Rupert Everett as one of a Greek chorus of murdered princes are high-spirited but never wink at the audience; the film is as sincere as its appealing lead characters. Pfeiffer has a blast as the witch, whether cooing at her restored beauty or blasting through its disintegration as she pursues the star.
Modern without being post-modern, ironic without air-quotes, romantic without apology, this is a fairy tale for our time because it takes us beyond time and reminds us that happily ever after is still a dream worth having.
Parents should know that this film includes fantasy violence, with characters injured and killed in a variety of ways, everything from having their throats cut to being thrown out of windows, poisoned, and drowned. There is some mild language and there are some mild sexual references and non-explicit sexual situations. A strength of the movie is unexpected acceptance of and support for a cross-dressing character.
Families who see this movie should talk about what drew Dunstan and Tristan to the other side of the wall. What is the difference between being a shop boy and a boy who works in a shop?
Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy sumptuous fantasy classics The Princess Bride
