I actually watched--with some trepidation--"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" this afternoon. It's about a magical toy shop owned by Dustin Hoffman (Magorium, an "avid wearer of shoes"), run by Natalie Portman ("composer of music"), and having its books done by Jason Bateman (Henry, "the Mutant"--don't worry--that's explained in the movie). There's also an amazing young kid named Eric Applebaum ("the hat collector") played by Zach Mills. And then there's the store, itself, which is one of the most important players in the movie.
But, as I said, I started watching the movie with trepidation. I had seen the previews and thought it could definitely go too far to the cheesey, too far to the schmaltzy, or simply too far. Happily, it doesn't.
Sure... There are moments which are way out there for adults, but I'm sure kids watching the movie would have enjoyed them. And there are moments where the background activity kind of gets in the way of what little story there is. And there is the whole question of where Magorium came from 243 years ago. Yet, somehow, the movie works.
There are small moments which help you to see the humanity in the insanity. And small moments when you see just how insane day-to-day life can be. When young Eric asks Henry to play checkers with him--a conversation entirely conducted by writing on pads of paper and holding them up to a dividing window--you begin to see the need for the wistful and the imaginative in Henry's grown-up life. Watching Portman try to convince Hoffman not to leave by giving him "the greatest day ever" (including going into a mattress store to jump on the beds), well, that just shows how great life can be if you don't take yourself too seriously.
Surprisingly, Magorium spouts some pretty nifty platitudes in the movie, which I hadn't expected. And I found myself, as the movie ended, thinking how much I had enjoyed it and how glad I was to have put aside my laptop for the time it took to watch the movie.
Okay. Full-blown honesty: Some of the CGI special effects were just a little off. I don't know what it was about them, but there were moments when you could tell the actors were simply acting, and didn't know what was going on around them. Sadly, in one of the pivotal scenes, it was very distracting. Luckily, for me, it was being able to identify with the human actors in the movie which made it fun for me.
Greatest movie of all time? Sorry, no. See it anyway? Yes. If you've got time to get it, I'd highly recommend taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the Holidays with a shopping spree at the Wonder Emporium.
2 comments:
Ditto!! I felt almost exactly the same way. But my favorite thing was some of the out of the blue LOL lines. Completely unexpected intelligent humor... like "he ate the cobbler" and "morning becomes electric.":-)
And why, after eating the baker and the farmer and the butcher did he eat the cobbler? Because he wanted something sweet, of course!
Yeah. I loved that, too.
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