Scan and Pan

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

This is one of those films that probably sounded better on paper, but there's just something lacking in its translation to the cinema screen.

Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman) works in a magical toy store owned by the whimsical 243-year-old Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman). When Mr. Magorium believes his long life is coming to an end, he decides to leave his store in the care of Molly, despite her nagging self-doubts about her abilities. With the help of a young boy (Zach Mills) and a practical-minded accountant (Jason Bateman), can she come to believe in herself and succeed as the new owner of the Wonder Emporium?

Writer/director Zach Helm (writer of Stranger Than Fiction) makes his directorial debut with a light fantasy that's certainly a colorful production with a whimsical sensibility, but it lacks a certain magical spark. The story offers too slender of a plot and at times is simply bland, while Helm's direction is competent enough but lacks the imagination that the concept demands. I also felt like I'd walked in on the middle of the story with some essential character development missing, especially for Molly.

The lighting of cinematographer Roman Osin (Pride & Prejudice) is uninteresting and far too mundane to conjure up a magical mood. However, production designer Thérèse DePrez (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) provides eye candy in the form of a magnificently eccentric toy store, while the store's living toys are believably brought to life by CGI effects.

Make no mistake about it, this is Hoffman's film. He's wonderful as an eccentric old toy store proprietor, a Willy Wonka of toys instead of candy. The film is always at its best when he's on screen and working his acting mojo. Mills delivers a winsome performance as the shy but wise beyond his years young boy, but Portman's performance as Molly is just flat. Bateman is well-cast as a buttoned-down accountant who stubbornly refuses to see the magic around him. There's also an amusing cameo by Kermit the Frog, performed and voiced by Steve Whitmire.

What an audience expects from a film with an imaginative title like Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is to be amazed and charmed. While it may not succeed at that, it's an inoffensive family film with some entertainment value that might be worth watching on DVD.

[2.5 out of 5 stars]

Enchanted

Just in time for the holidays, Walt Disney Pictures and producer Barry Sonnenfeld (director of The Addams Family and executive producer of television's Pushing Daisies) unveil a lighthearted truffle that's a mixture of animation and live action, filled with songs and romance, and sure to appeal to the entire family.

In the storybook land of Andalasia, the blissful Giselle (Amy Adams) is engaged to be married to Prince Edward (James Marsden), a union opposed by Edward's wicked stepmother, Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon). Narissa tries to eliminate Giselle by shoving her through a magical portal that transports her to the real world of New York City. Wandering around the city in confusion, Giselle is taken in by divorce lawyer Rob (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). After Edward follows Giselle to the real world, Narissa sends her bumbling henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) after him to ensure that he doesn't marry Giselle and threaten her control of Andalasia.

Director Kevin Lima (Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians) understands the conventions of classic Disney films, and Enchanted has numerous references to them while also gently poking some fun at them. The film portrays Andalasia using traditional animation, then switches to live action when the story moves to the real world, and the transition is smoothly handled and believable in the context of the story. The live action sequences are enhanced by CGI effects to bring to life various animals and creatures that help Giselle, as well as a menacing dragon. It's such an exuberantly frothy concoction that you can't help but be carried away by it.

The charming screenplay by Bill Kelly (Premonition) understands the appeal of happily ever after fairy tales. It may be predictable in the way that Disney films usually are, but what makes it so fun is seeing how artfully the familiar tropes are employed here, and how enjoyable they can still be when done right. It's also a clever homage to Disney classics that fans of those films should enjoy.

Cinematographer Don Burgess (Spider-Man, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) and production designer Stuart Wurtzel (Stepmom, Charlotte's Web) bring a bright, airy look to the film that gives the live action scenes the ambience of an animated fairy tale. Costume designer Mona May (Stuart Little 2, The Haunted Mansion) provides some fantastic gowns for Giselle.

Sometimes characters in these kinds of films burst into song, and the songs here are provided by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. As individuals and as a team, they've been responsible for the songs in past Disney films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as Broadway productions Little Shop of Horrors and Wicked. Their contributions here are as clever and tuneful as one would expect from their past body of work, and adds greatly to the pleasure of watching the film. One only wishes that there were more than five songs. The choreography by John O'Connell (Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge) is energetic, including a big song-and-dance sequence set in Central Park.

The luminous Adams is ever so perfect as a Disney Princess come to life and having to deal with the tribulations of a world that doesn't believe in magic or happily ever after, while Marsden exhibits a goofy charm as her earnest but none too bright fairy tale prince. The rest of the cast shines, too, including Dempsey as the practical-minded lawyer who slowly falls for Giselle, Covey as his daughter, Sarandon as the archetypal wicked stepmother/evil queen (she seems to be having a lot of fun in the role), Spall as the bumbling henchman, Idina Menzel as Bob's fiancée-to-be, and Matt Servitto as the boss of a sewer crew working at a manhole that just happens to be the exit point for the magical portal. Julie Andrews is the narrator, while Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid), Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast), and Judy Kuhn (the singing voice of the title character in Pocahontas) have cameos.

Enchanted is a magical romantic comedy for those of us who still want to believe that there's a happily ever after. What it may lack in substance it amply makes up for in entertainment value.

[4 out of 5 stars]

The Mist

There have been some good films based on the stories of Stephen King and there have been some really bad ones. The Mist is my personal favorite King story, so I approached the film with some caution. My worries were unfounded. This is one of the good ones.

The night after a violent storm damages his property outside a small Maine town, successful artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) takes his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) into town to purchase supplies. While they're inside the grocery store, the town rapidly becomes shrouded in a dense mist and the dozens of people inside the store find themselves trapped, in danger from both their own hysteria and the deadly creatures that lurk outside in the mist.

In the skilled hands of screenwriter/director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), it's a mostly faithful adaptation of King's novella that deftly captures the author's style. The dark humor, the dialog that sounds natural even as it verges on becoming hyperbolic, the sometimes eccentric characters, and the things that go bump in the night (or the mist). They're all here, faithfully rendered onto the cinema screen.

The film is a fundamentally sound effort that walks the line between the horror and disaster genres, complete with nail-biting suspense and frightening creatures. Oh, the creatures. They may only be CGI, but they're disturbingly alien and you'll struggle to convince yourself that they're not real.

The exception to its fidelity to King's novella is the ending, which replaces the ambiguous one of the source material with something much different and much darker. If the premise sounds like something from The Twilight Zone, it's Darabont's revised ending that really pushes it into classic Rod Serling territory, delivering a climax that's as memorable as it is emotionally devastating. Wow. Just wow.

Cinematographer Ronn Schmidt (Lord of Illusions, television's The Shield) strives for and achieves a hyper-realistic look that makes it seem more documentary than fiction. The production was going to be shot digitally, but it was decided that a grainy film stock would better suit the demands of the story. Production designer Gregory Melton (Bordello of Blood, The Majestic) and costume designer Giovanna Ottobre-Melton (The Rapture) create practical sets and costumes that also have somewhat of timeless quality to them. Cell phones and other technology place the story in the here and now, but visually it could almost be anywhere or anytime. The atmospheric score by Mark Isham (The Majestic, Crash) adds to the dramatic tension, and Darabont also uses the Dead Can Dance song "The Host of Seraphim" for great impact at the end.

Jane delivers a strong performance as David, especially at the end, providing an emotional center for the story. He's well-matched by Andre Braugher as his acrimonious neighbor and Marcia Gay Harden as a dangerously delusional religious fanatic. In general, the rest of the cast are solid and believable, including Gamble as Billy, Laurie Holden as a schoolteacher who develops an emotional bond to David and Billy, Toby Jones as the store's unassuming assistant manager, William Sadler and David Jensen as mechanics, Robert C. Treveiler as the store manager, Jeffrey DeMunn as a local man who first warns the people in the store about the danger in the mist, Frances Sternhagen as a gutsy older woman, Sam Witwer as a soldier who grew up in the town and Alexa Davalos as a store clerk he has a crush on, and Kelly Collins Lintz as David's wife.

The Mist immediately ranks as one of the better adaptations of Stephen King, and it's an entertaining and well-crafted thrill ride from start to finish. And just try to forget the ending when you leave the cinema.

[4 out of 5 stars]

P2

This horror film has an interesting premise, and rather efficiently gets the job done.

Angela (Rachel Nichols) works in a high-rise office building. On Christmas Eve, when the entire building is being shut down for the holiday, she finds herself trapped in the underground parking garage at the mercy of Bob (Wes Bentley), a security guard who has been quietly stalking her.

Two people in a parking garage could quickly grow tedious, but credit first time director Franck Khalfoun for keeping the tension level up, and working with cinematographer Maxime Alexandre (Haute Tension, The Hills Have Eyes) to use camera and lighting for maximum effect within that space. There's gore in the film, but it's usually more restrained than you'd expect.

The screenplay by Khalfoun and Haute Tension scribes Alexandre Aja & Grégory Levasseur takes a minimalist approach to storytelling, although it effectively plays on the fears of being trapped in a dark, empty structure, and does a decent job of creating a good female protagonist.

Nichols is very believable as Angela. She's likeable, plays the emotional scenes well, and ably handles all of the demands of the story. Bentley is frequently over the top as Bob. What makes his performance work is his earnestness. Bob is as delusional as they come, but Bentley makes him oddly sympathetic.

P2 is a competently made low budget horror film, but nothing more. If you're a horror film fan, it might be worth a a future DVD rental.

[2.5 out of 5 stars]

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

This is a very good film, blessed with a veteran director and a great cast working from a strong, character driven screenplay. If that's the recipe for a successful film, then this cinematic meal passes the taste test.

Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is an executive with a drug problem and a failing marriage to an unfaithful wife (Marisa Tomei). In need of money, he convinces his similarly cash desperate younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) to rob a jewelry store belonging to their parents (Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris). Hank hires a criminal acquaintance named Bobby (Brían F. O'Byrne) to do the actual robbery, but things go awry with tragic consequences for all involved.

Sidney Lumet has been directing television and film since the early 1950s, with credits including 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict. At the age of 83, he adds another quality film to his resume, demonstrating an old school substance over style approach that gets to the heart of an almost operatic tragedy. He tells the story through flashbacks and from multiple perspectives, carefully weaving the threads until they come together with a terrible finality.

The original screenplay by playwright Kelly Masterson presents a compelling and fatalistic profile of human beings whose lives are spiraling out of control by their own actions and the actions of those around them. There are some plot twists that require suspension of disbelief, and a couple of plot threads aren't adequately resolved at the end, but those are minor quibbles. The focus on the characters is what makes this story really work.

Lumet recently declared that the future of filmmaking is in digital video, and this is his first film to be shot in that format. Using the Panavision Genesis high definition video camera (most notably used previously on Superman Returns and Zodiac), cinematographer Ron Fortunato (Basquiat, Catch a Fire) achieves a low-key realism that captures the tone of the story without getting in the way of the performances, matched by the production designs of Christopher Nowak (The X-Files, Find Me Guilty) and the dramatic score by Carter Burwell (The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men).

Lumet always draws out the best possible performances from his cast, and here that includes Hoffman and Hawke as the ill-fated siblings, Finney and Harris as their parents, Tomei as Andy's wife, O'Byrne as Bobby, Aleksa Palladino as Bobby's wife, Michael Shannon as her scheming brother, and Leonardo Cimino as a jewelry fence. Hoffman always seems to quietly deliver great performances, Hawke and Tomei serve up their best work in years, and Finney is spellbinding. The acting keeps the film on track even when the script drifts into occasionally hard to believe areas.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead dives into the darker abysses of familial relationships and takes the audience along for the ride, complete with thrilling plot twists and the rush of watching a master storyteller and skilled actors do what they do best.

[4.5 out of 5 stars]

Lars and the Real Girl

If there's one thing indie films are known for, it's quirkiness. This film has that. However, quirky doesn't necessarily mean good, and this film is proof of that.

Lars (Ryan Gosling) is a shy loner who orders a RealDoll sex doll for companionship and falls in love with it. His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) take him to see the town's doctor/psychologist (Patricia Clarkson), who urges his family and friends to help him by acting as if the doll, dubbed Bianca, is a real woman.

Director Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock) handles the material with a flat, realistic touch that makes it difficult to connect with the story. It needs a touch of whimsical absurdism a la Tim Burton or Barry Sonnenfeld to really work, because a realistic style makes it much harder to suspend disbelief and become engaged by the story. Gillespie's approach is all wrong for what he's trying to accomplish.

The original screenplay by Nancy Oliver (a former staff writer for television's Six Feet Under) has underwritten characters, mistakes quirkiness for genuine humor, and mistakes sentimentalism for genuine emotion. The premise might have worked as a five minute sketch on a television show like Saturday Night Live or MADtv, but stretched out to 106 minutes it seems to drag on interminably as the story plays out in a predictable fashion.

Cinematographer Adam Kimmel (Jesus' Son, Capote) and production designer Arvinder Grewal (Land of the Dead, 16 Blocks) nicely capture the feel of a small town in winter. The style may be wrong for the material, but their work is solid. David Torn (The Order, Friday Night Lights) contributes a score that's excessively sentimental, trying to wring emotional responses out of the audience that just aren't there.

Gosling delivers a mixed performance as Lars. While he brings some charm to the role, the mannerisms he brings to his character, especially when Lars is stressed, are extremely annoying and quickly wear out their welcome. Clarkson gives a warm performance as the sympathetic doctor, while Schneider and Mortimer are solid as Lars' loving but confused brother and sister-in-law. If there's one performer who really stands out here, it's Kelli Garner, who steals the film as Margo, a sweet girl who works with Lars and has an enormous crush on him, although he's blind to how she feels about him.

Although Lars and the Real Girl falls into the quirky comedy-drama genre of indie films, it's a dreary film that's neither funny nor dramatic. All it has left is quirkiness, and that's simply not enough in this case.

[1.5 out of 5 stars]

Into the Wild

At times it's easy to despair about the state of filmmaking, but then a film comes along to remind you that there are still films that have something to say and say it well. This is one of those films.

It tells the controversial true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), an idealistic young man who decides to donate his college fund to charity and leave behind what he sees as a meaningless existence to wander around the country under the name of Alexander Supertramp with the goal of making his way to Alaska to live off the land, a quest that ultimately leads to his death from starvation in the Alaskan wilderness.

Writer/director Sean Penn (The Indian Runner, The Pledge) transforms Jon Krakauer's book about McCandless into a powerful film that seduces the audience from the very first frame and doesn't let go until the end credits roll. Penn finds both grace and tragedy in the life and death of a remarkable young man, albeit one who was naive and even arrogant in overestimating his ability to survive in the wild. There's poetry in the telling of this story that is as intimate in scale as it is epic in theme, recalling the films of Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven, The New World).

In exploring how one character on a journey touches the lives of others and in turn has his life touched by them, it also makes an interesting companion piece to David Lynch's The Straight Story. In the end, we're defined by the lives we touch and our relationships with our fellow humans. What lends strength to this film is its refusal to judge McCandless or to attempt to neatly explain what drove his actions, showing Penn's respect for both McCandless and the intelligence of the audience.

Cinematographer Eric Gautier (The Motorcycle Diaries) captures the beauty of the natural landscapes McCandless travels through, allowing us to appreciate them in the same way the character does. A combination of music by Michael Brook (An Inconvenient Truth), Kaki King, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder with original songs written and performed by Vedder results in a soundtrack that matches the story's intensity.

Penn's direction of his cast is sharp, obtaining the kind of electric performances he's known for as an actor. Hirsch's fervent portrayal of the central character burns up the screen, and he goes so deep into his role that only McCandless seems to remain as a charismatic presence that you can't take your eyes off of even for a second. The cast includes William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as McCandless' parents, Jena Malone as his sister, Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener as a hippie couple he meets on the road, Vince Vaughn as a man he works with in South Dakota, Kristen Stewart as a teenaged girl he meets in California, and Hal Holbrook as a lonely retired soldier who takes him in and begins to see him as the grandson he never had. For some of them, this is their best work in years, for others, it's their best ever.

Into the Wild is one of those rare films that works on every level. It's not something that can merely be watched, instead it begs to be experienced and even endured as an ordeal as emotionally draining as it is life affirming.

[5 out of 5 stars]