| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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A beautiful story of childhood horror.
by Alex (movies profile)
Feb 10, 2009
15
of
15 people found this review helpful
Admittedly, I have an extreme soft-spot for weird visuals and allegorical fantasy, but "Coraline" is quite possibly the best movie I've seen since "Pan's Labyrinth". It's one of those rare experiences where I left the theater already wanting to see it again.
Anyway... Coraline. It's a simple but intriguing plot: an attention-starved pre-teen girl discovers an alternate reality portal that takes her to a parallel dimension where the world revolves around her. She's delighted, but at the same time, treats this world as a dream playground, often even correcting the logical inconsistencies. When the dream world demands to be taken more seriously, she starts to realize the implications of joining a reality populated by soul-less puppets and selfish definitions of love, and Coraline becomes horrified by what she's gotten herself into. This is probably a different summary than you've read elsewhere; I've cut through the surface elements of the plot. Thematically it follows the principle idea of "Alice in Wonderland", and the Wonderland mythos is referenced pretty blatantly at several points in the movie.
One thing that really stands out is the character of Coraline. She's moody and abrasive, but strangely endearing and pitiable at the same time. Ebert refered to her as a bad child, but she's never annoying or malevolent. In a way, she's a bit like Oscar the Grouch, unpleasant but charming. And I think we can all understand that she's acting out. Some of the best moments have Coraline just fidgeting or playing pointlessly, begging desperately for someone to listen to her story.
Her story is actually quite scary. Not horror-movie jump-out-of-your-seat scary, but the ideas are scary. In one of the most chilling scenes, Coraline listens to the monologues of murdered ghost children who lament their mistakes while they were alive. Yeah, it's that kind of scary. Parents, you've been warned. But the dark story material isn't really there to scare you; it helps the movie make its points more vividly.
The animation is of course a wonder to behold, not just because it's smooth and expressive, but it actually produces damn good cinematography and every scene has something new and interesting to observe. One of the most delightful segments even has a musical cameo from the band "They Might Be Giants": Caroline's dreamworld father demonstrates a fantastical type of player piano while improvising a song about her. This is really a visual film, one that shows more than it tells, and the art team completely hit the ball out of the park here. This is in stark contrast to an earlier Neal Gaiman adaptation, Mirrormask, where a promising concept got muddled by sloppy directing and visuals. In Coraline, the story concept is given wings by the visuals, to say nothing of the beautifully haunting musical score.
There's also been much made of the 3D filming, although my personal jury is out on whether 3D is worth the extra bucks. The 3D is mostly subtle; it adds a visual depth to the movie and makes it feel more real, but there are only a few moments where it goes for the wow factor. I'm glad I got to see it in 3D, but it doesn't make the experience. It's icing on the cake, and in these hard economic times some people might want to skimp on extra frosting.
I could make a few minor nitpicks: Coraline's upstairs neighbor is too outrageous, to the point where I wondered if he had come from the dreamworld. I didn't find him annoying in any sense, but he lessened the contrast between the real world and the other world, which I feel is a problem. Also, the ending is kinda drawn out. I have no problem with what happens, but the pacing is kinda weird. Coraline's final battle is split into five separate encounters, rather than one or two punchy chase segments where all the nightmares could be defeated and lessons could be learned. The ending works, and it's clever, but it doesn't leave you with a climactic "Wham!".
I'm sure that, like the previously-mentioned Pan's Labyrinth, this will be a case where I like the movie way more than almost everyone else. It's a slightly idiosyncratic experience, but done so well and with such unique qualities that everyone should check it out. |
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