Winter without Christmas... heaven
Can you make a decent film from a story that centres round four privileged 1940s kids, and is saddled with Christian allegory & middle-class morals? The answer seems to be a resounding 'yes' -- from the moment that Lucy steps out into the snowy forest, I was hooked.
It's a very straight adaptation that sticks closely to CS Lewis's story, and is all the better for it. All of the children chosen can act, which helps, though I was particularly taken with the performances of the two younger children, Edmund (Skandar Keynes) & Lucy (Georgie Henley). The film's strong opening scenes, set during the London blitz, place the children firmly in their background, in a way that the original readers never needed but contemporary kids perhaps do. The script takes care to characterise the four children as individuals, and to explore their less-than-perfect familial relationships. Without the novel's rather irritating narrator continually telling us what to think, Edmund's treachery becomes completely understandable.
The Christian aspects to Lewis's vision are neither highlighted nor ignored. Aslan's sacrifice is exquisitely moving, as it should be, and the script wisely allows his words to Edmund to remain private. It was inevitable that the film would show the battle more directly than it appears in the book, but I felt the film lost some impetus towards the end: the budgetary constraints began to show and there's only so much middle-class kid directing army that I can take in one sitting. I did wish that there could have been a closing scene in London.
The White Witch is simply breathtaking. Tilda Swinton's performance gives a nicely psychotic edge to the character, and her over-the-top costumes are just perfect. James McAvoy is also stellar as the shy faun, Mr Tumnus. I wasn't as fond as some reviewers of Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, though playing Christ-as-a-talking-lion can't be easy. The American accents of the evil minions grated a bit, but better that than German, I suppose...
It's honestly hard to see how a better film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe could be made without straying further from Lewis's text or targeting a much older audience. I'm looking forward to the next Narnian installment already. I give it 4/5.
It's a very straight adaptation that sticks closely to CS Lewis's story, and is all the better for it. All of the children chosen can act, which helps, though I was particularly taken with the performances of the two younger children, Edmund (Skandar Keynes) & Lucy (Georgie Henley). The film's strong opening scenes, set during the London blitz, place the children firmly in their background, in a way that the original readers never needed but contemporary kids perhaps do. The script takes care to characterise the four children as individuals, and to explore their less-than-perfect familial relationships. Without the novel's rather irritating narrator continually telling us what to think, Edmund's treachery becomes completely understandable.
The Christian aspects to Lewis's vision are neither highlighted nor ignored. Aslan's sacrifice is exquisitely moving, as it should be, and the script wisely allows his words to Edmund to remain private. It was inevitable that the film would show the battle more directly than it appears in the book, but I felt the film lost some impetus towards the end: the budgetary constraints began to show and there's only so much middle-class kid directing army that I can take in one sitting. I did wish that there could have been a closing scene in London.
The White Witch is simply breathtaking. Tilda Swinton's performance gives a nicely psychotic edge to the character, and her over-the-top costumes are just perfect. James McAvoy is also stellar as the shy faun, Mr Tumnus. I wasn't as fond as some reviewers of Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, though playing Christ-as-a-talking-lion can't be easy. The American accents of the evil minions grated a bit, but better that than German, I suppose...
It's honestly hard to see how a better film of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe could be made without straying further from Lewis's text or targeting a much older audience. I'm looking forward to the next Narnian installment already. I give it 4/5.