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Inkheart

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Inkheart (2009)

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Reviews Counted:27

Fresh:7

Rotten:20

Average Rating:4.8/10

Consensus: Heavy on cliches and light on charm, this kid-lit fantasy-adventure doesn't quite get off the ground.

Rated: PG

Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

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 Details]
 
 

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

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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The aesthetics of Inkheart are part of what make it such a surprisingly enjoyable experience to watch.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/23/09
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[Has] plenty of thrills, a smart although oft-confusing script, delightful scenery-chewing scenes from stalwarts like Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and Andy Serkis, and a gorgeous high-concept visual style.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
01/23/09
Linda Barnard
Linda Barnard
Toronto Star
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Seemingly intended as a celebration of the power of books, it's an occasionally incoherent, sleep-inducing picture that reduces narrative to mere mechanics.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/23/09
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Over and over again, characters in Inkheart wax eloquent on the power of books. But there's nothing in the movie as haunting or as compelling as the sound they make when they speak for themselves.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/23/09
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A flea market of fairy tales and hocus-pocus, Inkheart makes as much sense as an inkblot.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment 5 Comments
01/23/09
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The overqualified cast gives its all, but logical lapses and sober-sided direction siphon off the fun.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
01/23/09
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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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.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
01/23/09
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
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As an adventure flick, Inkheart is not all that adventurous. It goes to places and falls on tropes that many fantasy films -- most notably but not exclusively the Lord of the Rings trilogy -- have covered.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
01/23/09
Kamal Al-Solaylee
Kamal Al-Solaylee
Globe and Mail
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Even if it can't quite conjure up the movie magic it intends, Inkheart does serve as public service announcement promoting literacy. And as such, your kids could do a lot worse at the cineplex.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
01/23/09
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
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Much of this comes across as a labor of love, with a classy cast frolicking in Iain Softley's whimsical direction of a lushly imagined adaptation by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
01/23/09
Nancy Churnin
Nancy Churnin
Dallas Morning News
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It's handsomely mounted, with supporting turns by Helen Mirren as the girl's flinty aunt and Jim Broadbent as the author of the book that caused so much fuss.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
01/23/09
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
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Inkheart illustrates an obvious problem with making a movie about the joys of reading when the movie made is labored and sludgy looking: Why bother seeing it if you can stay home and read a book instead?

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
01/23/09
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Inkheart was a busy, crowded, hugely successful book to start with....the film version retains nearly all of author Cornelia Funke's story complications. It's a mixed bag and a serious load for a movie to carry.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
01/23/09
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
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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.

comment Comment
01/23/09
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Inkheart is a valentine to books mainly by negative example -- the leaps of imagination it doesn't achieve.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment 1 Comment
01/22/09
Sheri Linden
Sheri Linden
Los Angeles Times
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A kids' adventure movie can be a lot of things -- wild and woolly, loosey-goosey, full of foolishness -- but they should never be shabby. And that's the best word for Inkheart.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/22/09
Joe Neumaier
Joe Neumaier
New York Daily News
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Inkheart may not be rotten to the core -- instead of maggots, the fantasy adventure seethes with good intentions -- but the overripeness of its special effects can't be overstated.

Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal | comment Comment
01/22/09
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
01/22/09
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The story is a whirl, a jumble, an effusion -- sometimes flowing smoothly, other times jerking along as if the filmmaker has been given advice he resents regarding pacing and the balance of sweetness and danger.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
01/22/09
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Entertaining enough for young teens, but a little more thought could have made it appealing to adults as well.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
01/22/09
Rafer Guzman
Rafer Guzman
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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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. Opens in new window
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 Opens in new window
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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