."Every Story Written is just Waiting to Become Real"
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Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraiser) is a "Silvertongue" -- one of a rare few who can "read" characters out of books and bring them to life. Sadly, he discovers this trait one night while entertaining his wife Resa (Sienna Guillory) and their daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett). While indulging in a passage from the fantasy novel Inkheart, he unleashes fire juggler Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) while accidentally sending his spouse into the tome. Now, 10 years later, Mo is still looking to save her, even though his efforts have let loose more fictional faces from the book, including evil master thief Capricorn (Andy Serkis). But the criminal is not content with being a viable member of the real world. He wants to rule all of mankind, and wants Mo to help him in this horrible pursuit.
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It's a conceit of the movie that, whenever a Silvertongue releases something from the world of books, someone disappears from the real-life world and enters the world of story. The last time he read characters into the world, his wife disappeared! Some viewers may be hoping that their mother-in-laws disappeared instead!
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Unfortunately, there are two negative consequences of this switch-and-subtract story element. The first, of lesser importance, is that it introduces a logistics problem that is never resolved. What happens to the people who are stuck in the fantasy world? Do they get to influence the world of fantasy and change the course of literature?
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The second, a much deeper problem, is that the device takes the one imaginative and potentially delightful aspect of the film - the prospect of story characters coming to life - and subdues it.
What we're left with is hardly inspired. Twelve years after the disappearance of his wife, Silvertongue is pursued by the wicked characters he released. They need his reading powers to loose yet more evil beings from the underworld, and once they capture him and his now-teenage daughter, the movie adopts the typical contours and landscape of an action movie.
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Yet "Inkheart" is even worse than most action movies in that it keeps a toe in whimsy, and this turns the film into an unpleasant hybrid - a children's fantasy in which everything has a sour cast, an action movie in which nothing is to be taken seriously. There's no heart, no working metaphor to the story.
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Helen Mirren turns up as Fraser's aunt, an outspoken bookworm. Midway through the movie, the aunt announces that she is going home and leaving the adventure. Later, she makes a perfunctory reappearance. Fact is, hers was probably the most striking character of all the cast!
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Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire penned the bigscreen adaptation of German author Cornelia Funke's fantasy novel, the first of a trilogy. "Inkspell" was published last fall, and "Inkdawn" will be out next year.
