SCI FI PI

Released Dec 13

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jason Bateman
Director Zach Helm
Rating G

For a G rated movie with such a title, you’d be forgiven in writing it off as the most abominable pap, hardly worth a sneer, and certainly not your hard-earned movie-ticket cash.

Fret not, however, those of you dragged to this fraptabulous film by the under four footers. It’s not that bad – in fact, it’s actually quite good, bringing to mind the sense and sensibility of the grand old days of live action kids movies personified by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Plenty of music, still, but less lyrics.

The key to it all is the writer director, Zach Helm, who penned the delightful Stranger Than Fiction, which brought a) Will Ferrell away (briefly) from the over acting galoot table and b) announced to the world a talent for walking the tight rope between an artist’s imagination and the audience’s expectation.

Once again, we have an original film.

Dustin Hoffman plays the titular store owner, a 243 year old man who has decided to die because his very last pair of shoes are giving out. He is leaving his store to the ‘blocked’ child musical prodigy, Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman) but she’s not at all ready, convinced you have to be magical like Mr Magorium to run the world’s most bizarre toy store.

Cue the life lesson plot line here.

However, it’s not as obvious as it all sounds. Jason Bateman, who plays the straight man, Henry Weston the accountant (or mutant, as he’s referred to in the movie) seems to be playing a possible love-interest but it’s the divergence from the utterly bleeding obvious (with only the occasional rest stop at the ‘well, yes, we saw that coming) that lifts the film from mindless pap. It is also the tone – magic is dealt with matter-of-factly, as are difficult zebras and stupendous hat collections. The child does not stand in awe as it imagines a new world, they just accept it, and move on – just like this film. The early announcement that Mr Magorium is ‘leaving’ also injects a shot of sour into a film brimming with sweetness, saving it for adults and adding real weight for the kiddies.

It is this tone that forgives some of the conceits, although, for the most part, as they are part of a unified and carefully constructed whole, the audience is quite ready to forgive already.

In the end, it is the sheer joy and celebration of the magic of childhood that softens the hardened heart and makes this film a children’s classic. Don’t come to it too late, or you’ll kick yourself. It’s a little bit special, and very well done.