Inkheart

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For the love of Thomas Hardy

They say script writers should always assume their audiences are twelve year old. That's awful but at least it wouldn't pose too much of a problem for kid movies, right?

It actually does. There are not a lot of intelligent kid movies out there. I know a lot of people love Shrek, for example, but I just don’t get it. Is a five year old supposed to get a reference to The Matrix

I like real kid movies, the type that can entertain and stimulate bright kids. 

One of them is Inkheart.

This movie isn't so popular and I wonder if it's because the movie has serious flaws or if people are not that into innocent adventures anymore.

The story is just so promising: Mo (the always pleasing Brendan Fraser) is a silver tongue, he has the ability to bring fictional characters to life when he reads books aloud. The catch is that every time a fictional character comes to our world, a real person enters the book, which is what happened to Mo’s wife, Resa.

The character that was brought from the book Inkheart, Dustfinger, is now after Mo: he wants to go back to his story. It sounds complicated, but it’s not really. 

























The movie is excellent because the story is very well thought of. Not only is it filled with adventure and excitement, but there are a couple of aspects that can really instruct children (and adults) without them even knowing it.

The villain and his gang all wear black, carry guns and walk around marching. In case that analogy isn't clear enough, they also burn books. 

I remember that the book in which this movie was based there's a quote that says "Where people burn books, they’ll soon burn people”. 

Moreover, there’s the symbolism of the writer of Inkheart - the story within the story – Fenoglio. Dustfinger is afraid to know his creator, the writer, whereas Fenoglio loves Dustfinger and wants to stay close to him. 

When they first meet, Dustfinger, acting just like a rebelled creature, says “You are not my god”. It's like what Saint Augustine said: "the question that torments mankind the most is how God can have foreknowledge of everything in the future and yet we do not sin by necessity but by our own free will."

Inkheart, regardless of being a kid’s movie, is my type of movie. It cater for younger audiences with its “Middle Earth” fantastical atmosphere and... Brendan Fraser. 

But it has more. it deals with issues that are difficult to bring up even in serious adult movies such as Nazism and the relationship between man and God. I really like this movie, perhaps because I am a book person, but mostly because it doesn’t assume I'm dumb.

Have you seen Inkheart ot read the books?

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7 comments

  1. Not a Inkheart reader, but you gave me the wish to read it ... Or see the movie (I'm a Brendan Fraser fan, since "The Mummy" & the "Rteurn of the Mummy". I like books about books & about people that go into the books, like "Never Ending Story" (one of my favorites) and "Farenheit 451" (gives me an never ending fear!)About burning books, it's always good to remember Dr. Jones, father:
    [Nazi Colonel Vogel is torturing Henry to get answers]
    Colonel Vogel: Tell me about this miserable little diary of yours. The book is useless and yet you come all the way back to Berlin to get it. Why?
    [he slaps Henry in the face with his glove]
    Colonel Vogel: Why?
    [he slaps him again]
    Colonel Vogel: What are you hiding?
    [he slaps him again]
    Colonel Vogel: What does the diary tell you that it doesn't tell us?
    [he tries to slap him again; Henry grabs his wrist, stopping him]
    Professor Henry Jones: [through his teeth] It tells me, that goose-stepping morons like yourself should try *reading* books instead of *burning* them!
    Have a nice and blessed Sunday!

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  2. I think you'd like this movie, if anything because it has Brendan Fraser in it! But seriously, the books are amazing, so the movie is a great and quick way to see if you like the story enough to go into the books or not. I'd lend you the book but I've only got the 2nd and the 3rd books of the trilogy (the first one I read it before giving it as a gift to my cousin... ;)

    That's a great scene you mentioned. It has become ingrained that burning books = totalitarianism. Now I want to watch Indiana Jones! Have a great Sunday as well!

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  3. You have made me want to re-read the books! Perhaps I'll give the movie another try...

    Anna x

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  4. That's great! I really love the books, specially the second one InkSpell. And the movie did a good job with the casting - lots of great actors like Helen Mirren and Paul Bettany. Don't you think they look like the characters they play? xx

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  5. very cool. loved the parthenon pics since im greek and ive been there :)

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    Replies
    1. That's so cool! Greece is definitely one of the places I want to visit ;) xx

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