Inkheart

Narrator: 'Since the dawn of time, storytellers have enchanted audiences with their words. But there is an even rarer gift. There are those, who by reading out loud, can bring characters to life. Out of books and into our world. Most of these Silvertongues, as they are know prefer to keep their skills a secret but some do not even know this gift is theirs, until it is too late'


Inkheart (Iain Softley, 2009) is a fantasy story that encompasses many mythical creatures of many favorite stories such as Toto and the twister from the Wizard of Oz, Arabian Nights and Little Red Riding Hood. These characters have been used time and time again and has become a little corny and the 'easy way out' in story telling today, I want to see something original and new fictional characters emerge from cinema not just using the same characters over again no matter how great they are.

The concept of characters coming out of the books, literally coming to life on the pages is quite interesting. The fact that they have the words tattooed over their faces is very visually interesting and a nice idea. It also helps the viewer to differentiate between the characters in the mythical world and those of the 'real' world. From a costumers perspective i really enjoyed it, however they seemed a little literal with the costumes which can be forgiven due to the fact that the film is based on historical stories with quite 'set in concrete' visuals. The whole film was quite predictable.



There were a lot of special effects used in the film ie to simulate the shadow. While effective it is nothing we have not seen before in these kinds of fantasy films. I couldn't help but thinking of the money that has gone into the costuming, special effects, characterization etc and how it seems such a waste for something that is not the greatest film ever made and does not present us with anything more entertaining then what we have seen before, perhaps I am being a little overly expecting of todays film industry.

That said I really enjoyed the sets and locations of the film. There was something nice and magical about them and really worked well for the story. It is a cute mystical film that can be enjoyed by viewers of all ages and not necessarily young children.