Christ, what a story !

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2006)

This relatively linear children's tale may be seen as light fare compared to it's Big Brother, the Lord of the Rings, but knowing the story as I did I was really looking forward to seeing some 'fun fantasy' on the big screen that would clock in under 11 hours running time ...
Knowing that I already liked the actual *story*, I hoped the film of course would stay faithful to the source material and bring to life what had been written on the page ... Happily the film succeeds on both those counts, the fairly straight-forward story is presented in all it's detail (and without any uneccessary embellishment) and, like the LOTR trilogy, has a happy knack of achieving a look that goes hand-in-hand with one's own imagination (how *do they do that* ??) - my 10 year old son made numerous remarks about how much everything looked like he thought it would. Having a basis for comparison, this is a real achievement in my eyes, as C.S. Lewis doesn't go into *quite* the same detail as Tolkien did in the descriptions of their respective fantasy landscapes - although Lewis's world is in some ways more vivid than Tolkiens ...
The Mr. Tumnus/Lucy scene has been criticised for having a 'creepy' feel to it, but having just read the book I was struck by a real sense of 'stranger danger' that I didn't pick up on upon reading the book as a child - Lucy going off to tea with a Faun of indeterminable intentions ? Mr. Tumnus putting the young girl to sleep with a coma-inducing lullaby ? - It was already a touch dark in the book as far as I'm concerned, and I thought it was good that the director didn't shy away from the slightly sinister tone of that particular scene ... The CGI Aslan was incredibly impressive, I went with a company of 4, one of whom was convinced the Lion was real and only the 'talking mouth' had been animated ... I was also very satisfied with the acting performances, those that had a chance to shine did (Lucy, Edmund and the White Witch), whilst the others, who were written somewhat one-dimensionally in the source book, did o.k. with their limited roles ... Young Georgie Henley was as cute as a button without being too precocious and put in a great performance as the youngest sibling Lucy. Skandar Keynes (!!) was also great as the brooding Edmund, my favourite character in the books (he's said to be a metaphor for Man in this allegorical re-telling of the story of Christ )
But by far the performance that appealed to the more cultured element of my taste was that of Tilda Swinton as Jadis the White Witch. Damn she was good, if you had no love for the story or the kiddies, she'd still be highly watchable. She was insidiously charming during her first meeting with Edmund, emitting a vaguely maternal promise, yet her cold fury scared the sh*t outta me once or twice, particularly the first time she raised her voice at Edmund - she was bad assss ! Ms. Swinton was also surprisingly imperious with two swords in either hand during the battle scenes, which were largely mayhemic apart from her coolly choreographed fightin' moves - this usually dead-serious thespian (I said thespian !) seemed to relish the chance to play a baddie, and didn't go for the ol' trick of camping it up either, she was as cold as ice just like the White Witch should be ... her performance during Aslans sacrifice, and indeed the whole set-up of that particular scene, brought to mind ye olde Pagan rituals ... Anyway, Tilda Swinton definitely earnt the movie an extra star in my eyes, she was awesome and actually exceeded my expectations of what the White Queen should be all about. Like the LOTR, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was shot in New Zealand.