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Page to Screen by Claire E. Gross Inkheart is a booklover’s book. First in a series by bestselling German children’s author Cornelia Funke, it is built around the premise that certain rare people have the ability to literally read books into reality. The story follows twelve-year-old Meggie Folchart and her father, Mo, through an extraordinary adventure involving the characters, both good and evil, that Mo read out of a book called Inkheart nine years before. But the rule is that when something comes out, something else goes back in; hence Meggie’s mother Resa has been lost in Inkworld ever since. And now the Inkworld characters have caught up with Mo, and all are in danger. So how does a book so wedded to the power of print translate to film? Surprisingly well, in fact, due to a talented ensemble, some savvy changes to the story, and the creators’ willingness (in a departure from every fantasy adaptation I’ve seen recently) not to try to make a Lord of the Rings clone. Instead, the movie embraces the book’s own pace and tone; and the result feels if not exactly fresh then at least individual. Despite a rocky start — forced literary references, some minor script redundancies, and an overall abruptness — once the burden of exposition has been shuffled off, the movie comes into its own. First there’s the cast. Brendan Fraser as Mo and Eliza Hope Bennett as Meggie have a great onscreen father-daughter chemistry, and Fraser anchors the ensemble with a layered, tense performance. Though the perpetually pensive Bennett’s range doesn’t extend much beyond soulful anxiety, she’s earnest enough to make Meggie’s bookwormish heroics convincing. Resa’s book-collector aunt, Elinor, and the fictional Inkheart’s author Fenoglio are energetically portrayed by veterans Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent, both of whom steal their scenes — whether it’s Fenoglio simultaneously delighting in and suffering from his villains’ villainy or stuffy Elinor riding a unicorn to the rescue. Capricorn, Inkheart’s main villain, is played with sneering, sinister relish by Andy Serkis. Sienna Guillory makes her mark as Resa despite having no voice for most of the movie; the scene where she watches, trapped, as Mo and Meggie run away, oblivious to her presence, is truly heartbreaking. Finally, Paul Bettany as Dustfinger, a morally fluid but basically goodhearted performer from Inkworld, is the real standout. Slightly rewritten (gone is the torch he carried for Resa in the book, along with his more unjustifiable betrayals), Dustfinger is more straightforwardly sympathetic, struggling with notions of free will and predestination that Funke didn’t address until later books in the series. Though occasional preachy protestations of the power of the written word feel a little too overt, for the most part the movie eschews such blatant bibliophilia and draws upon classic page-to-screen adaptations like The Wizard of Oz and several fairy tales, creating visual references to replace the literary ones of the original novel. Meg’s new friend Toto aside, this allows the fantasy-action sequences to feel particular to the movie (rather than spliced in to please demographic groups) and makes for some exhilarating moments, not least of which is when that iconic twister devastates Capricorn’s castle. The visual aspects of the movie, too, are skillfully handled. Though the movie isn’t afraid to go big for climactic scenes like the twister escape and the final confrontation, most of the special effects are subtle and favor beauty (Red Riding Hood’s cloak falling through the night sky in the opening sequence) or whimsy (Capricorn’s stable of fairy-tale creatures) over flash. The visuals are a spot-on complement to the story, from the majestic cross-European scenery shots to the majestic sight of Capricorn’s castle nestled in a remote countryside. Brief shots of villains popping into other stories provide flashes of humor, and the Shadow, Capricorn’s evil “hound” formed of the dust of his victims and a player in the final showdown, is a chilling creation of ominous smoke and flame. If the movie has any theme beyond what was originally in the novel, it is the magnetism of family. Dustfinger dreams of his wife and children beckoning him home; they, not his feelings of being a stranger in an alien world, are what drive his desperation to return to Inkworld. Meggie and Resa’s reunion is much more of a tearjerker onscreen than it was in the book, and it becomes the emotional center of the film. The ending seems almost to preclude the possibility of sequels, and while it’s a welcome change to see a fantasy movie that’s complete in and of itself, it would be a shame not to see the rest of the series adapted when the results are this promising.
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