Review of Inkheart (2008) by Filipeneto — 01 Oct 2018

Who has never read a book and imagined everything they read? In this movie, a man with a passion for books tries to deal with a rare gift: when he reads aloud, characters and objects from books can materialize and come to life off the pages. But this comes at a price: whenever something comes out, something or someone from our world has to go into the book. So it was with his wife. However, when the characters he freed make him prisoner, the task of saving him and solving everything passes to his daughter. Okay, it's a somewhat complex plot, it takes time to present and develop, but this is done without creating major problems of perception and understanding. It would be much more interesting if the literary characters who came to life were real characters from books we all know. This spared the film the job of presenting them and making us to know whether they were bad guys or good guys. The film also has several plot holes, especially in the end. The ending is far less interesting than anything else. We even got the feeling that the movie was finished in a hurry, or they didn't quite know how to finish it properly.

Brendan Fraser is decent enough for the lead role even though he seems not to add anything special to it. He might even have switched places with Paul Bettany, who seemed much more capable of holding the lead role, as his character assumed some relevance in the story. Andy Serkis was a good villain and Helen Mirren was excellent in a supporting character. Eliza Bennett seemed to me a solid promise for the future. On the other hand, Sienna Guillory was pretty bad and unconvincing all along and Jim Broadbent, an actor with a comedic propensity, fell short of what he could have done. Cinematography is good but discreet, fulfilling it's role without merit or demerit, and the same can be said of soundtrack. The choice of sets and the costumes was good. CGI is good but, since it lacks magic in the movie, that spoils things a little. Almost everything in this film seems underdeveloped and made in a little elaborate and lazy way.