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Nice adaptation of a fantastic book
by Emily (movies profile)
Jan 26, 2009
4
of
5 people found this review helpful
As a fan of the books that inspired this movie, I went into the theater cautiously hopeful. I knew that Brendan Fraser was the inspiration for Mo Folchart, one of the main characters, and I have a great amount of respect for Paul Bettany, so I was anxious to see what he would do with the slightly morally ambiguous Dustfinger.
I was not disappointed. Though there were some fairly major changes, it seemed to me that most of them were done to make the story work as a MOVIE, and none of them really altered the spirit of the book that made it special in the first place.
Despite some of my initial misgivings, I didn't have any major casting issues. A lot of the characters looked very different than I had imagined them, but they all managed to get their personalities down almost perfectly. Brendan Fraser's Mo was sweet and bookish and protective while playing the part of the reluctant hero, Meggie was precocious and smart, though where her British accent came from I haven't a clue. Elinor surprised me, as I had always imagined her considerably... larger. (Doesn't the book say she's a large, imposing woman?) However, Helen Mirren is a fantastic actress and she got Elinor's eccentricity and righteous indignation down perfectly. I loved her. I also really liked Fenoglio. (Played by the actor who will forever be "Bridget Jones' dad in my mind...) He got Fenoglio's mixture of childish glee and wonder at his creation coming to life and complete disregard for the seriousness of the situation down pretty well. And he did it while still making him somewhat endearing, which is hard to do. I still wanted to strangle him half the time, but with affection in my heart, always.
Capricorn and Mortola were... different than I imagined. I always saw Capricorn as more serious, older, and more... imposing. Andy Serkiss played him slightly closer to the edge of crazy than I'd thought him, but it didn't become ridiculous, and I suppose the movie makers thought that he had to be over the top. Mortola, too, looked more like a hag/evil witch sterotype than I'd pictured her. I always saw her as a very prim schoolmarm type with her grey hair pulled back severely. It was hard to adjust that vision of her to what we got on screen. But, she wasn't around much, and not much was made of her being Capricorn's mother, so it wasn't a problem for me. I liked the change that they made that had the characters coming out of the books with words printed on them... that was a nice visual cue that worked for the movie.
Then, there was Farid. When I first saw pictures of the actor they'd chosen to play him, I was disappointed. He is an extremely handsome kid, but he looked too old, and I worried that the movie was making him older to play up his relationship with Meggie earlier. (They didn't, thank goodness.) However, I ended up really liking him. He may not look as physically young as I had imagined him, but he acts young, and Farid's knack of landing on his feet wherever he goes comes through, as does his friendship with Dustfinger.
Oh, Dustfinger... I have no complaints. He was perfect. By turns menacing and endearing, always doing what he thinks he has to in order to get back to his home and his family. Paul Bettany managed to get all of his complexities down perfectly. The scene where he pulls the book out of the fire and tries to give it back to Meggie... really nice there. (Also, the scene where he's juggling fire in the town square had me staring. A lot.) I could go on for hours, but he really was my favorite thing about the whole movie, as was to be expected, I suppose. I have a thing for characters who are reluctantly moral, but I like the the movie went out of its way to explain some of his actions. It makes some of the not-so-squeaky-clean things he does more sympathetic. He's not just doing them because he doesn't like this world or fit in here, but because he has a family he wants to go back to.
In short, this was a very nice adaptation of the first of a fantastic series of books. |
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