Scary Film For Young Children

Billed as a children’s fantasy film based on the popular book, this chaotic and violent film is clearly not suitable for children under 10 years of age and I’m surprised it’s not rated PG 13. Upon researching the novel, I found book reviews that warn against readers under 10 years of age as the book has scary villains and the main character (a young girl) is in danger throughout much of the story. I found the same to be true of the film.

The book is by the author Cornelia Funke and has been so popular that it’s been translated in 37 languages. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t comment on the original tale but I am intrigued as the storyline is an interesting one. Brendan Frasher stars as a dad (‘Mo’ Mortimer Folchart) who has the ability to ‘read’ characters out of a book. The bad part is that when he reads someone out, a person must go into the story. His unique gift is named ‘silver-tongue’ and only a few people have this gift.

Unfortunately one evening while Mo is reading the novel Inkheart to his daughter, Meggie (Hope Bennett), she’s about age 4 at the time, something terrible happens. His wife (Sienna Guillory) is read into the book and disappears. Meggie doesn’t know why her mother is no longer around and Dad never tells her. Fast forward to when Meggie is age 12 and we view Mo searching for a copy of the book in an old bookshop so he can read his wife out of the story and bring her back home.

Mo encounters a villain played by Paul Bethany as Dustfinger, he’s from the inside of the book Inkheart and wants to go back to his wife. He has special powers and can start fires by rubbing his hands together. Adults will remember the talented British actor as the albino villain ‘Silas’ in “The DaVinci Code” and most recently as the cruel father in “The Secret Life of Bees.”
Jennifer Connelly appears in the background as his wife which is really strange, the credits list her character as Roxanne. She’s married to Bethany in real life as well and may have simply wanted to be in the film alongside her husband as she usually has starring roles.

After the encounter with Dustfinger, Mo and Meggie drive to Elinor Loredan’s house who is played by Helen Mirren. Elinor is Meggie’s eccentric Aunt. Whilst visiting, a group of scary looking villains enter the house and kidnapped everyone.  These villains are dressed in black and have marks on their faces that are actually words they acquired while being transported between the pages of the book. The captors are taken to the evil Capricorn’s castle the main villain who wants gold and riches. He demands that Mo read the parts of books that will bring wealth to him. “Inkheart,” continues its tale in a mystifying manner. It’s difficult to figure out the many and confusing characters.

The audience for this film is preteen and definitely those who have read the book so they are clued in. The film has a great cast but a disappointing and muddled story.

Sarah Adamson © 2009