Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jason Bateman,
Zach Mills, Ted Ludzik, Mike Realba, Steve Whitmire,
Madalena Brancatella, Oliver Masuda, Paula Boudreau
Written by Zach Helm
Certification UK U | US G
Runtime 94 minutes
Directed by Zach Helm
In a week that sees the re-release of It's A Wonderful Life and, one trusts, the celebration of Bridge To Terabithia in assorted end-of-year best of lists, the problems with the resistible Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium become very clear.
Helm — who has decent credentials as the writer of Stranger Than Fiction — goes all out for quirky charm again and misses by a country mile with this tale of a magical toyshop, its eccentric owner (Hoffman) and his assistant Molly Mahoney (Portman). Molly should have been a composer but has had music writer's block for years and, instead, still finds herself running the Wonder Emporium. When Magorium decides that, at the age of 243, it's time to 'move on', he intends to leave the store to Molly but needs to get it valued and put his affairs in order. Enter uptight accountant Henry (Bateman) who's given the task of sorting through the Magorium paper collection and getting things straight. And around this 'action' lurks Eric (Mills), a hat-collecting Billy-no-mates of epic proportion, who spends all his time at the store rather than interacting with people his own age.
Can you guess how it all turns out? Well, you won't guess the specifics — and it'll take years of hypnotherapy to forget Portman clumping her way around the supposedly uplifting finale. She's no doubt meant to be signifying joy. Instead she's more badly choreographed carthorse. Add to that the morass of cliche and Hoffman's supposedly endearing oddball that's actually just Rainman the toymaker, and you're left with a depressingly average family movie that's approximately two per cent as cute as it thinks it is. Still, Bateman and the kid pitch it perfectly and earn the film both of its stars.
The nature of loss is always an interesting angle for such films and maybe Helm deserves a pat on the back for trying to broach the subject. But, as I say above, in a year where Bridge To Terabithia managed to cover that subject in exquisite detail, break your heart and rebuild it again in a slightly improved, warm and fuzzy fashion Magorium was always going to suffer in comparison. The biggest problem though is that even in a year without Bridge To Terabithia, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium is something of a stinker.
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SECOND OPINION | Mark Cappuccio *** After last year’s brilliant Stranger Than Fiction I was really looking forward to Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. The concept was sound and the idea enchanting as, if done right, a magical toy shop could look fantastic on screen and, by putting a non-magical believer into the store in the form of accountant Henry (Bateman), much hilarity could ensue.
Mores the pity then that it did not turn out as special and fun as it sounded. It's good in places and the store does indeed come to life, albeit with a lot of product placement of course, but from funky toys such as scary dolls and a sock monkey, which are less intrusive than say Transformers or Star Wars. There are great touches, like the door handle that can be turned to open up different rooms such as the 'Ballroom' — where a small child finds himself recreating the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark with a giant bouncy ball — or turned again to reveal the stairs to the flat above. Also the living fish mobile and bouncy balls trying to escape are cute.
But all this does not make it a great film although the performances are fine throughout — Hoffman is suitably wacky as the eccentric owner and is fairly convincing as a 243 year old — while Portman with what seems to be a young boys haircut is her usual quirky self. It's Jason Bateman who is the weakest link here, not convincing as a straight man accountant or in his transformation as a true believer by the close of the film. The biggest problem is that for a film about a magic toyshop it lacks magic itself, seeming manufactured to elicit all the right responses from its young targeted audience but falling far short of this.
Three out of five for trying but go and find Tommy Steele’s classic Finnegan’s Rainbow for a truly magical toy-themed adventure this Christmas.