Review: Cornelia Funke - Inkheart
Book Review and What to Expect from Inkheart the Film in 2009
Sep 7, 2008
One of the highlights of the 2008 festive period film releases for children is sure to be New Line Cinema’s Inkheart, directed by Iain Softley (The Skeleton Key, The Wings of the Dove) and adapted from Cornelia Funke’s bestselling series of children’s books.
Inkheart is the first of Funke’s trilogy and introduces us to Mo ‘Silvertongue’ Folchart and his daughter Meggie, who live a quiet existence in the reassuring world of bookbinding and avid reading. Their unassuming peaceful life is rocked to the core when the curious Dustfinger, with pet pine marten, Gwin, arrives and tells them that the villainous Capricorn wants a particular book from Mo, a very special book that he will stop at nothing to get.
Meggie, her father and Dustfinger set off on a tense journey to hide the book with the help of the irritable but well-intentioned and book loving Elinor. Along the way, Meggie discovers the truth about her missing mother and finds that her family hides an extraordinary and life-changing storytelling talent.
Funke’s trilogy continues with Inkspell (published in English in 2005) and concludes with Inkdeath (2008).
Characters Come Alive
Funke shows us a world where stories come alive, characters become real and imagined horrors take actual form: a world where authors can take away as quickly as they create, a world that so mirrors the act of reading and writing that it is hard to see clearly the boundaries between reality, fiction and reading that a reader normally experiences. This is a great book to fire children’s imaginations, and to help them understand and enjoy reading as a creative act.
Prepare to meet some of your favourite characters from children’s literature, including some unusual and fantastical creatures that will no doubt keep the film’s special effects team busy.
On the downside, the book is slow paced, and has a great deal of padding, something that hopefully the more clipped and fast paced nature of film will improve when the story comes to our cinema screens. Every potential flaw in the plot is meticulously justified and pre-empted to the point of annoyance, and the locations of the story are not particularly inspiring or exciting, particularly for a children’s book which does so much to inspire kids with a love of reading. The good news is that the plot is good enough to take it, and all these problems are things that good direction and a clever screenplay will do wonders with on the big screen.
A Superstar Cast
So who can we look forward to seeing in the starring roles when this eagerly awaited film arrives?
Inkheart boasts an impressive cast list. Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, George of the Jungle) is to star as Mo, with Eliza Bennett (Nanny McPhee) as Meggie. Paul Bettany (Wimbledon, The Da Vinci Code) plays Dustfinger, while screen veterans Helen Mirren (The Queen, Calendar Girls) and Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, Bridget Jones) will play Elinor and Fenoglio respectively. Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) plays the villain Capricorn, with Sienna Guillory (Eragon) as the enigmatic mute Resa.
Combining this remarkable cast with an equally impressive visual effects team, Inkheart promises to be a visual feast supported by potentially top class acting.
Funke and J.K.Rowling
Nonetheless, this is a story that stands alone as a book, regardless of the film's potential successes or failures. The novel does not smack of commercial interest as some other children’s fantasy titles, jumping on the Harry Potter bandwagon, seem to.
Funke is of a similar standing to J.K.Rowling in her native Germany, and fills her work with a simple and unadulterated love of imagination and reading; the film, when it arrives, will purely complement a top notch piece of children’s literature.
Children as young as 8 would find enjoyment in this novel, but parents may like to know that the book contains running themes of motiveless evil, separation from parents, some acts of cruelty and violence, as well as featuring a whole bevy of supernatural and unusual creatures.
Inkheart is released on December 12th in the UK and 23d January in the US.
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