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Inkheart (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:132
Fresh:52
Rotten:80
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Heavy on cliches and light on charm, this kid-lit fantasy-adventure doesn't quite get off the ground.
Theatrical Release:Jan 23, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $17,281,832
Synopsis: Cornelia Funke’s best-selling novel, INKHEART, comes to life in director Iain Softley’s (THE SKELETON KEY, THE WINGS OF THE DOVE) feature-film adaptation of the same name. For 12 years, bookbinder... Cornelia Funke’s best-selling novel, INKHEART, comes to life in director Iain Softley’s (THE SKELETON KEY, THE WINGS OF THE DOVE) feature-film adaptation of the same name. For 12 years, bookbinder Mo (Brendan Fraser) and his daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett), have been traveling the world, poking around secondhand bookstores. Meggie correctly assumes that her father is looking for her mother, Resa (Sienna Guillory), who disappeared without a trace. What Meggie doesn’t know is that Mo is a Silvertongue, and when he reads a story aloud, the details and characters come to vivid life. But when a character comes out of a book, someone has to go back in, and Mo is searching a copy of the book, titled "Inkheart," into which Resa literally disappeared. When Mo read the story aloud, unaware of his powers, she was sucked into the story, and the fantastical novel’s villainous characters were released. Now, Mo and Meggie have to keep evil Capricorn and his henchmen from realizing their diabolical plot, and send everyone back where they belong. INKHEART is awash with colorful details. Capricorn has had to make do with a stuttering Silvertongue who delivers characters that are half-read: text from the book is tattooed on their faces, or they suffer some other malady, emerging from the book mute or with an odd physical feature. Paul Bettany is engaging as Dustfinger, a character who desperately wants to be read back into "Inkheart" and return to his family, portrayed by Bettany’s real-life love, Jennifer Connelly, in a miss-her-if-you-blink performance. Helen Mirren is good fun as eccentric, feisty bibliophile Aunt Elinor, and Jim Broadbent appears as the novel’s author, who is enthralled by the possibilities of Mo’s gift. [More]
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, Eliza Hope Bennett, Rafi Gavron
Director: Iain Softley
Director: Iain Softley
Screenwriter: David Lindsay-Abaire
Producer: Iain Softley, Diana Pokorny, Cornelia Funke
Composer: Javier Navarrete
Studio: New Line Cinema
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Release:
Jun 23, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region [unknown]
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- (unspecified) English
Additional Release Material:
- Featurette
- 1. A Story from the Cast and Crew [Playing the game "tell me a story," Novelist Cornelia Funke starts the cast & crew off on this wild adventure by giving the first line,"I discovered the hole under my bed on my thirtenth birthday…."
- 2. 2. Eliza Reads to Us [Actress Eliza Bennett ("Meggie Folchart") shares one of her favorite passages from the book that did not end up in the movie accompanied by Cornelia illustrations of the story]
Reviews for Inkheart
A movie that can produce the image of Helen Mirren astride a unicorn has some claim on the audience's interest, and a movie that can make that image seem perfectly uninteresting is in some serious trouble.
This shrill, moronic and often ugly family adventure feels cobbled together from spare parts, with a script that can't even be bothered to follow its own rules or internal logic.
The film’s storybook Alpine vistas are lovely to behold, and bits of humor pop out in welcome moments. Other than that, it never quite springs to life as intended -- not in your kitchen, and not on screen.
We leave doubly convinced that words are better left squat, inert, and black on the page
there is nothing that resembles fun anywhere. No sense of emotional involvement by anyone on screen, and certainly no breathtaking and/or lurking sense of doom
There's nothing terribly wrong with Inkheart but it just doesn't quite engage us,"
Adapted from the best-selling novel by Cornelia Funke, this makes a splashy fuss about "the magic of books", and yet undermines our imaginative instincts by monstering the screen with special effects.
Much less cringe-worthy, juvenile and bland than Bedtime Stories, it lacks the awe-inspiring thrills, brilliance and imagination that makes superior films like Harry Potter so exhilarating and unforgettable.
Brendan Frasier's Mo may be able to conjure magic, but the same can't be said for this film.
Inkheart feels as though it has been pulled apart and put back together several times over, leading to a viewing experience that's equal parts bewilderment and tedium.
This fantasy-lit film is too intense for young ones drawn to its books-come-to-life story and not sharp enough for Potter fans.
A few of the creatures, as well as one startling moment, might unsettle little ones in the audience. But the greater danger is that they'll fall asleep.
Inkheart finds Brendan Fraser getting out-acted by flying monkeys and Toto the dog.
Inkheart the novel is intended to be the first of a trilogy, but - like The Golden Compass, but even more so - it falls well short of convincing me that the next two films would be a worthwhile investment, financially or emotionally.
Much is made of the magic of literature in Inkheart, but the joys of losing yourself in reading are undermined by the movie's barrage of special effects and a convoluted plot.
Latest News for Inkheart
January 30, 2009:
Making a movie about the magic to be found in reading books, is a little like General Motors singing the praises of riding a bike instead. ![]()
More...
January 22, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Inkheart Is Less Than Magical
This week at the movies, we've got living literature (Inkheart, starring Brendan Fraser and Eliza Hope Bennett); political intrigue (Frost/Nixon, starring Michael Sheen and... More...
January 22, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Underworld Battles Oscar All-Stars
Only two new releases hit the North American box office, but in the wake of Academy Award nominations, a handful of contenders take the opportunity to expand nationwide hoping... More...
December 14, 2008:
Warner Bros. Firms Up 2009 Schedule ![]()
From "Inkheart" to "Sherlock Holmes," the Warner Bros. slate for 2009 has been set, and ComingSoon has posted it for your perusal. More...
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