Movie Review: Inkheart

Rated PG.

When Mortimer (Brendan Fraser) reads a book out loud, he brings the characters in it to life – literally. He can also send real people into the book. Unfortunately he only discovers this “Silvertongue” talent when reading Inkheart, a scary kids’ book, to his three-year-old daughter Meggie. He accidentally sends his wife Resa into its pages and brings out its arch-villain Capricorn (Andy Serkis) – possibly illustrating the foolishness of reading three-year-olds such terrifying books instead of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Mortimer spends the next nine years searching Europe for another copy of Inkheart to bring back his wife, while also dodging Capricorn. He somehow manages to keep these facts from Meggie (Eliza Bennett) until he finally succeeds in finding a copy – at which point his past catches up with him in the shape one of Inkheart’s characters, the highly ambivalent Dustfinger (Paul Bettany).

Great idea, great cast, great way to illustrate the power of writing, and it’s based on Cornelia Funke’s best-selling book... but it doesn’t quite work. The problems are mainly structural: we don’t know if it’s Mortimer’s or Meggie’s story, and there are also too many plot holes.

Still, despite its flaws, just remember: there are worse films your kids could drag you to see.

Rating: 6/10