Review: 'Inkheart' Weaves Intriguing Tale

'Inkheart' (PG)(out of four)

For any librarian, teacher or parent out there who always hoped that their child would realize the wonder of a good book rather than the draw of a violent video game, "Inkheart" might be the way to go.

For the wordsmiths among us, Cornelia Funke's novel may be more intriguing on the page, but it's a spectacle of imagination on the big screen, too.

If you're unfamiliar with the popular fantasy book by Funke, who has been called the German J.K. Rowling, the basis of "Inkheart" is that fictional characters spring to life when someone with a unique type of gift of gab reads aloud a book.

Director Iain Softley has assembled quite a cast for the film version of "Inkheart" who were no doubt enthralled to take on the subject matter and traverse exotic locales.

Brendan Fraser has crafted the recent part of his career on these adventure stories of far off lands, but in this one he plays a different kind of adventurer. He's book mender Mortimer "Mo" Folchart whose love of literature has landed him in a serious predicament. Little did he know as he read a thriller of a novel to his young daughter that his gift of a "silver tongue" would change his life -- not for the better, but for the worse.

Those who possess the gift are dubbed Silvertongue in the land of "Inkheart." Mo's breathing of life into the characters, literally, has unleashed some very wicked fellows. The chief villain is Capricorn (Andy Serkis) whose entrée into the modern world has brought with it power and prestige. He lives in a castle, surrounded by creature comforts and actual creatures that another Silvertongue conjured for him out of books. The only problem with this particular Silvertongue is his stutter which sputters characters out with words tattooed on their faces or somehow half baked.

Meanwhile, there's Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), also from "Inkheart," who has been stalking Mo hoping the silver tongue would read him back into the book. There is a problem. Mo's reading characters out of the book also trades someone into the book. And so comes the drama of our story: when the characters of "Inkheart" were read out, in went Mo's wife, Resa (Sienna Guillory).

When the tale begins, it's nine years after the fateful reading: Resa is still missing and Mo, accompanied by his daughter, Meggie (Eliza Bennett), is searching Europe high and low for a copy of the out of print "Inkheart." When he finds it, he also discovers the hideout of Capricorn.

With Helen Mirren as Mo's aunt, a keeper of some rare books herself, and James Broadbent as the harried writer of "Inkheart," there's enough talent to keep the story more than afloat. Like a good book, you need to go with the tale and let it take you where it will.

Some very comical moments add levity to the "Harry Potter" meets "Bedtime Stories" atmosphere of the film including Toto being read out of "The Wizard of Oz" along with the famous flying monkeys. A scene with Mirren riding in on a white Unicorn makes the actress who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a stately queen seem old and simple. And Broadbent's doddering as author Fenoglio walks the same ridiculous tight rope.

However, nothing can take away the utter creativeness of Ms. Funke's story. Like a good book, this film is a page turner -- and one that you won't want to put down.