A Fantasy Well Grounded in Reality

Rating: 8/10 (14 April 2006)

CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia may very well have been a book intended for children but it was also the result of a life through the Great Wars and the effects those wars had one the individual. Gratefully in Andrew Adamson's directorial hands that part of the story that lends the need for the fantasy is preserved.
The concept of separating children from their parents during the Blitz in London in WW II is now showing up in many novels. Lewis was one of the first to address the trauma these separations had on children. Adamson opens his film with some fine footage of the aerial German blitz and the terror of the Londoners running for bomb shelters. The family in focus is the Pevensie family - Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley), and Susan (Anna Popplewell) - and these four children are sent off to a safe mansion owned by the Professor (Jim Broadbent). The mansion has a wardrobe that begins the fantasy, Lucy being the first to enter the kingdom of Narnia through the back of the wardrobe. Soon the four children are all together in the snowy place and encounter first a faun, then the Queen of Narnia/White Witch (Tilda Swinton) and there begins the struggle for domination and secrets that gradually resolve the mystery of Narnia, that mystery carefully paralleling Christianity through the forces of the kind Lion Aslan (Liam Neeson).
The children are wonderful, especially Georgie Henley, and while the story deals with human creatures it is strong. As the various CGI animals enter (fine though they may be as creations) the tale for this viewer weakens a bit, but that is a personal response. In general with work like that from Tilda Swinton and Jim Broadbent along with the children, the movie form of Narnia is convincing and enchanting. Quibbles aside, it is a charming film. Grady Harp