INKHEART Film Review - 17/5/09

Despite a classy cast headed up by a very restrained Brendan Fraser (Little comedy in this role) with the likes of Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and Andy Serkis plus Sienna Guillory and Paul Bettany plus a whole wagon load of English Repertory Theatre actors to boot, they all struggle against the 'Harry Potter Effect'. This dreadful disease is brought on by the success of the Potter Series and in desperation Studio Execs rush out buying up the rights to any novel that could give repeat-franchise business. Unfortunately this has resulted in a slew of films bombing just like this one at the Box Office then being hurriedly released on DVD to make some cash back. You cannot fault the cast; but this film really slowly creaks along with a mish-mash of reality stuck somewhere in a very foreign Europe, within which lies a fantasy concocted from a book. If I was 9 years old I'm sure this would have been the greatest film I had ever seen!

Fraser's character is a man who can charm characters into reality just by reading them from any book - So he doesn't read. Desperately searching for a particular book to do with a tragic incident from his past; he soon finds his past catching up with himself and his daughter as they go on the run across Europe been tracked by a sinister group called 'The Blackjackets' and their master Capricorn.