A Good Yarn

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2005)

Although not in the same league with the already legendary Lord of the Rings pictures, director Andrew Adamson (of Shrek heritage) has brought C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" to the silver-screen with unusual humanity and style. In a courageous attempt to capitalize on recent trends of audience infatuation with the fantasy genre Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures brought us an expensive yet delightful holiday treat in the form of "The Lion with Witch and the Wardrobe".
A great many things about Adamson's adaptation of the Lewis books are very impressive. Interestingly though I did not feel startled by the quality of special effects. Perhaps LOTR/ WETA have ruined my view of effects for several years to come. But despite lacking a great many new thrills in the technology department Adamson has other tricks up his sleeve. I was especially impressed with the performances of the film's most integral parts, the Pevensie children. Despite risks of being overwhelmed by the abundance of CG characters, landscapes, and the resulting scenes, the four young actors who took on the lead roles of Lewis' valiant children proved themselves by excelling in almost every category. Skandar Keynes did well in producing the necessary audience feelings of disdain and eventual embrace of his surly but lovable Edmund. Anna Popplewell seemed like an old hand compared to her co-stars and handled her screen-time with grace and poise that is enviable for many of today's stars. William Moseley did justice to the character but he failed to make a resounding statement with his performance (I would be surprised if he is successful in turning his Narnia time into a long-term career). However, the most remarkable scenes in Narnia are not produced by the grandeur of special effects but instead by a tiny little girl named Georgie Henley. In the history of the cinema directors have shown sick fascination with hinging their films on the performances of children. While most people remember the positive moments in the history of film and children e.g. "Sixth Sense", "E.T.", "Oliver!" there have been a hundred times as many distinct failures (Brandon De Wilde's "Shane" is my personal favorite). And in other cases failure has not been outright and is instead replaced by mediocrity of child performers which has led to mediocrity of the film as well e.g. "The Road to Perdition". Although her performance is not what the film hinges upon for its overall effect it might as well have because 10 year-old Georgie Henley provides the deepest magic you find in Narnia. Henley completely pulled me into the story every instant in which she was the focus of a scene. Her on-screen communication does not even walk a fine line with overacting, it remains perfectly within the boundaries of subtlety and magnificently communicates the innocence and fiery spirit of her character. My favorite scenes of the film are played out between Henley's Lucy and James McAvoy's good-hearted faun Mr. Tumnus (McAvoy is particularly outstanding among the supporting players).
Tilda Swinton's turn as the white witch was a primary reason for my interest in the film. However, I was relatively unimpressed with how her performance played out. Certainly Swinton did an admirable job but she lacked anything extra that truly made her stand out amidst the quagmire of CG characters. This role could have kept Swinton in mainstream villainous or powerful female parts for life but I am afraid she did not do enough with her screen time to justify any special attention. She will likely never become a contemporary of Cate Blanchett as she, and her promoters, may want her to be. Jim Broadbent's precious few moments of screen-time are everything any Broadbent fan would want them to be. He handles himself as always with unequivocal dignity and produces a fantastic sense of mystery as the ancient and secretive professor.
The quality of voice acting is certainly good. Ray Winstone, Rupert Everett, Dawn French and many other talented individuals lent their professionalism to the project and they add to Narnia's mystical ambiance marvelously. Liam Neeson took on the difficult role of Aslan (Narnia's equivalent of the Messiah) and I am sad to report that he simply does not have the ability to voice a lion like James Earl Jones (Mufassa from Lion King). Neeson has proved himself time and again to be one of the great modern-day thespians but he just lacks the power Aslan needed (and could only be provided in my view by Jones).
As a whole Narnia presents itself as a very good children's fantasy epic. However, Lewis' high focus on child content will leave Narnia out of any serious consideration for awards and status in the history of movie-making. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring's will stand a test of time that Narnia cannot and will not. Still, Andrew Adamson's direction shows that he has the stuff to be a lasting directorial force in Hollywood (and with the success of the Shrek film's why not?). Not only does Adamson strut his technical stuff he also displays an uncanny understanding of what makes a movie humanistic and fantastic without exploiting or stretching an audience's collective imagination. He and his screen-writers cleverly expanded on Lewis' storyline (which lacked many necessary establishing factors) and did so without losing any of Lewis' charm or intent.
Overall, it is a Good Yarn that is worth seeing.