What are they teaching in schools these days? - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

When writing a review of a movie based on a much adored book, it?s tempting to dwell on how wonderful the message of the original story was, but this is misleading if the film doesn?t do it justice. After all, labeling a movie ?Christian? does not necessarily make it good any more than carrying a business card with a fish on it makes a plumber good. Your Christian plumber may be a good man, but if he consistently does a poor job of repairing your pipes, then why would you recommend him to your neighbor? So let?s render unto Ebert and Roeper the things that are Ebert?s and Roeper?s and judge this movie on its own merits. To begin with, a lot of user reviews mention the shortcomings of the visuals, but I think their complaints tend to minimize the artistic achievements of the film, which are significant. Admittedly, there are a few animated characters that look somewhat less than realistic and a few minor details that could have been handled better, but they aren?t distractive enough to detract from the overall appearance of the film. Likewise, many reviewers complain about poor acting, but I think they are mistakenly attributing failures in the script or direction to the actors themselves. For example, in one scene where Lucy brandishes her knife in what was apparently intended to be a threatening manner, the audience actually laughed. It might be easy to blame actress Georgie Henley for not pulling this scene off, but in truth, the blame lies with the scriptwriters, who thought such a scene would be convincing, and the director, who directed Henley to play it straight. Perhaps it would have been more convincing to have her play it as a distraught, frightened child rather than trying to pass a ten-year old girl off as a ferocious warrior. But here as elsewhere, Adamson?s direction was remarkably ill-tuned to his actors? talents. No, it wasn?t the acting. The children were well cast and carried off their roles remarkably well. Likewise, Tilda Swinton was stone-cold as the icy witch Jadis. The fact that most of the characters seemed one-dimensional should be attributed to the writing instead. Yes, each child has a particular trait that identified him, but this results in character ?types? defined purely by that one feature rather than in dynamic, believable characters. As the cautious older sister, Susan never fails to gripe about risks and constantly berates Peter for putting Edmund or Lucy in danger. And Edmund, ever the black sheep of the family, seems motivated purely by short-sighted obstinacy. Lucy is always darling Lucy, and Peter is ever the burgeoning leader who never quite seems to bloom. And that?s pretty much how they come across in every single scene. It?s almost as if Adamson deliberately bypasses opportunities to portray an apologetic Susan, a repentant Edmund, or a decisive Peter on screen, assuming that viewers will fill in the gaps in the story with their own memories of missing dramatic scenes, and that all he need do is show them all happy and united in the end. And that lack of development, on the whole, was the main problem with this movie. The film rushes so quickly from one dramatic situation to the next that it fails to portray the effects of these events on the characters in a convincing manner. All the reactions comes across as canned. It?s next to impossible to believe that the centaur who swears to fight to the death for King Peter really means it, because not once has it been shown the Peter is worth it. Instead, the audience is expected to take it for granted that Peter?s a courageous warrior because, after all, that?s his destiny. The amazing thing about the Chronicles of Narnia was not that C.S. Lewis wrote a Christian allegory; it was that he wrote an entertaining Christian allegory. It?s a shame we can?t say the same for this movie. And yet people continue to flock to the theaters in droves because, after all, it?s not as if your eight year old would know the difference anyway. But let?s hope that in future productions of the Chronicles, Adamson and his script writers will keep rule #1 of dramatic writing in mind: show, don?t tell. And for those of you who insist on giving this an unqualified A+ and are old enough to know better, maybe it?s time you learn to differentiate what you want to see with what?s really there. My heavens, what are they teaching in schools these days?