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?
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
Inkheart is a fantastic read, and I wasn't expecting the film to live up to it at all. Much simpler than the book, the film is still a pretty fantastic ride. The story is changed around a bit but the main characters are there, exactly as you remember them
For a movie about the power of books and stories, it's a bit ironic that Inkheart is itself so poorly thought through.
Better an adventure movie for families that (however paradoxically) extols the value and wonder of books than yet another movie that celebrates violent revenge or asinine behavior.
Another fantasy adventure story based on a bestselling book that turns out to be a dud.
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.
Inkheart gets a pass for making books seem cool (if scary): if only it could have done the same for movies.
The concept of 'Inkheart' is worthy but the execution leaves viewers' heads caught in the library and their feet in the cineplex.
It's an interesting idea, but instead of imagining an equally clever conclusion, the film eventually collapses into a series of chases and fights with a big Raiders of the Lost Ark-style special effects blowout ending.
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.
Brendan Frasier's Mo may be able to conjure magic, but the same can't be said for this film.
Its countless missteps earn nothing but scorn even as its wonderful intentions make us ashamed to voice them.
It's not that Inkheart is horrible or stupid or has something about it that scars you so badly and deeply you will never want to go to the movies again. It's just not special.
Beautiful cinematography, good direction, solid supporting actors, interestingly enough story, despite its predictability, but the main character was absent.
Despite its interest in creative expression, Inkheart's hurried pace, shorthand characterizations and regularly scheduled set-pieces obliterate all but the faintest traces of lucid thought.
... focused on giving the film a palpable threat of potentially fatal consequences and the characters an emotional foundation.
Bettany's wonderful performance is as compelling as the movie itself is lackluster and downright dull.
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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