This movie gets a 2 out of a possible 5 stars on the Shotgun movie scale.
Chocked full of fantasy, magic, and sarcasm, this movie turned out to be a little better than I was expecting. (Though not by much.)
Brandon Fraser stars as “Mo Silvertongue Folchart,” an average guy who happens to have the ability to bring into reality whatever he reads aloud. Unaware of his abilities, Mo reads to his daughter out of the fantasy novel “Ink Heart” only to have the villains appear out of nowhere…knives at the ready. The fortunate appearance of a noble hearted (but somewhat cowardly) character “Dustfinger” (played by actor Paul Bettany, Wimbleton, Knights Tale) shows up in time to save the day. When the dust settles, a sinister side effect of Mo’s power is discovered. Whatever comes out of a book must be replaced by something from the real world. Mo’s wife has vanished into the Ink Heart novel…which was destroyed during the scuffle.
For the next twelve years, Mo is on the run with his young daughter (played by actress Eliza Bennett) going from book show to book show looking for a copy of Ink Heart in the hopes to bring his wife back.
Adventure ensues when Dustfinger catches up with the duo. Dustfinger, wanting nothing more than to get home to his family, makes a pact with the badguys and helps them catch Mo. They capture Mo, and use his daughter as leverage to force him to manifest large amounts of gold out of “The 40 Thieves.”
(The budding economist in me winced at this part of the movie. I wanted to lecture the thugs on the economic principals of counterfeit, and how all that influx of new gold into the market would only serve to reduce the value of gold all together. Seriously folks…if you ever get a “reader” and wish to abuse his abilities for nefarious ends…make sure you only have him “actuate” consumable goods like guns, or food, or mass amounts of toilet paper and napkins. Leave the “money” alone.)
Dustfinger, having been betrayed, helps Mo and friends escape the clutches of the bad guys, and set off to find the author of Ink Heart in the hopes of finding the original manuscript. Once there, Dustfinger reveals that Mo’s wife was really back in the castle with the bad guys.
The heroes then mount a rescue attempt that really doesn’t work. At the end…(SPOILER ALERT) they are all saved by Mo’s daughter who has inherited his reading ability.
Overall, I was kind of bored with this movie…granted it is geared towards young girls (with enough action that I imagine the producers hoped young boys would also be interested.) Brandon Fraser doesn’t ever contribute in any significant way to the resolution of any conflict. He just runs around, yells, and get’s the crap beat out of him repeatedly. The entire conflict is resolved in a dramatic way by his daughter, who ends up “reading” everything back to normal…why she didn’t just do that to begin with…who knows?
They could have done so much with this. I would love to have seen some of the great literary characters manifested to do battle with each other or otherwise interact in creative ways. Instead, all we get is Toto the dog, and Farid (a character from the 40 theives.) Yeah…I would have loved to see Sherlock Holmes team up with Quasimodo, and perhaps have Smog the dragon show up to do battle with the nefarious “Shadow” demon from the Ink Heart novel. Oh well….
One of the most enlightening parts of the movie, is when Dustfinger meets the author of Ink Heart and forcefully tells him “You are NOT my God!” This sets up the dichotomy in the child’s mind, (albeit implicitly) that there is a “higher” sovereign over the “real” world…a sovereignty that man cannot achieve…no matter how powerful he might be.
The movie has a weak but enjoyable story…one that kids will find attractive. It might also have the added benefit of motivating and inspiring children to read old books…(which, these days, means…”good” books.) There are one or two harsh words spoken, and some strong (scary) images of a large shadow monster at the end…but, I think overall it’s suitable for children.
So, go enjoy the movie…and, if you happen to be a “reader” then please read the following line out loud for me:
“And then Shotgun turned from his monitor and peered out the window just in time to see a brand new, fully restored 69 Mustang fastback…and magically the keys appeared in his pocket…”