Based on a young adult novel, at first glance INKHEART is a fairly standard fantasy adventure movie about people called silvertongues who have the ability to read aloud from a book and make things in it come to life. Brendan Fraser plays the protagonist, an American whose profession is repairing rare books. His wife mysteriously disappeared a number of years earlier, and with his 12-year-old daughter, he travels the world searching for a copy of the ultra-rare novel INKHEART. While they’re in England, some bizarre, sinister characters start stalking them, and that leads to a series of special-effects-laden adventures.
All this is pretty well done, but what sets INKHEART the movie apart are the numerous moments that make you realize that it’s really about the love of reading and the power of the written word. You get some funny, scary, exciting adventures along with it, but for me (and I’m betting for many of you, if you watch the film), the best scenes are the ones where people poke around in dusty old bookstores and libraries and obviously love being surrounded by books.
I like Brendan Fraser in most of his movies, and he’s fine here. The always interesting Paul Bettany has a good part as a roguish character who may be a friend or may not be. Overall, INKHEART is a very entertaining movie, and I especially recommend it if you love books and storytelling like I do.
All this is pretty well done, but what sets INKHEART the movie apart are the numerous moments that make you realize that it’s really about the love of reading and the power of the written word. You get some funny, scary, exciting adventures along with it, but for me (and I’m betting for many of you, if you watch the film), the best scenes are the ones where people poke around in dusty old bookstores and libraries and obviously love being surrounded by books.
I like Brendan Fraser in most of his movies, and he’s fine here. The always interesting Paul Bettany has a good part as a roguish character who may be a friend or may not be. Overall, INKHEART is a very entertaining movie, and I especially recommend it if you love books and storytelling like I do.
6 comments:
I agree. the best parts of this movie were fairly early. I thought the climax was pretty weak, but I did like the empahsis on books and how folks loved reading.
This one goes on my list.
New or on DVD. I've never heard of it.
It's out on DVD. It played briefly in the theaters earlier this year.
I'm totally with you on this. I took my sons to see it when it came out in the theater, and although I don't think it's a great movie, I can't imagine a writer and heartfelt reader that doesn't find the very concept of this movie appealing.
I thought this movie was very entertaining. It wasn't a masterpiece or anything, but still a good family movie with an original concept. I gave it four stars in my movie review. I'd buy it. Cool blog by the way.
Post a Comment