Much of this early setup has a pleasingly old-fashioned feel, with the always excellent Macfadyen suggesting tender emotional depths to be explored. Clara receives an ornate egg-shaped music box with a cryptic note from her mother that reads, “Everything you need is inside.” But the box is locked, with no key. It’s Christmas Eve, and the children’s sorrowful, distant father (Matthew Macfadyen) summons them downstairs to present them with gifts left for them by their recently deceased mother Marie (Anna Madeley). Clever Clara Stahlbaum and her young brother Fritz (Tom Sweet) are up in the attic of the family home using toys and the laws of physics to rig a complicated mouse trap, foreshadowing a key plot point later on. In the opening sequence, we’re in Harry Potter territory as an owl soars and swoops over Olde London Town, or a mostly CG version of it, setting the Christmastime scene via a massive decorated tree in a public square. She also flutters about on dragonfly wings, just like Tinker Bell. If the conception of the character owes something to Elizabeth Banks’ Effie Trinket in the Hunger Games series, well, that’s consistent with a movie that constantly recalls superior inspirations. And Keira Knightley brings a mischievous campy spirit to the Sugar Plum Fairy, gliding around crowned by an upsweep of cotton-candy curls and speaking in a breathy, excitable squeak until she reveals her not entirely unexpected petulant side. She’s feisty and determined enough to appeal to contemporary sensibilities, yet not so much that she pulls you out of the old-world reality that grounds the story. The movie’s best asset is young lead Mackenzie Foy as Clara, a 14-year-old Victorian girl with the sharp logistical mind of a budding engineer. Oversaturation is the default setting.Īndrea and Matteo Bocelli Team Up For Emotion-Filled 'Fall On Me' on 'Late Show': Watch The filmmakers seem aware that this is an issue, drenching the action in an almost nonstop flood of lush music that shuffles Tchaikovsky with James Newton Howard. To put it bluntly, the story is a convoluted mess, occasionally inching toward interesting developments but almost invariably careening off in some frantic new direction before lasting involvement can take hold. A similar division of duties appears to have happened with the screenplay, with Hallstrom working from newcomer Ashleigh Powell’s original script and Johnston weaving in additional material by an uncredited Tom McCarthy. The bulk of it was completed by the reliably pedestrian Lasse Hallstrom, before Joe Johnston stepped in for extensive reshoots, presumably to punch up the CG-driven action. The schizoid quality is perhaps not surprising considering the incompatible styles of the two filmmakers who share directing credit. It’s more like Tim Burton’s garish, exhausting Alice in Wonderland and its unwatchable sequel, borrowing elements far and wide without ever settling on what kind of movie it wants to be. It lacks the captivating charms of Disney’s live-action remakes of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, or the fabulous distraction of Angelina Jolie that kept the revisionist Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, semi-entertaining. The big-budget fantasy certainly paints its share of pretty screen pictures, and may hold some appeal for preteen girls, in particular the baby bunheads with a fondness for the ballet version.
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