The Golden Compass Review
by [email protected] (sdo230 AT gmail DOT com)December 9th, 2007
The Golden Compass
reviewed by Samuel Osborn
Director: Chris Weitz
Screenplay: Chris Weitz (based on the novel by Philip Pullman) Cast: Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig
MPAA Classification: PG-13
A wintry delight for the season, The Golden Compass is a spirited antidote to all the Oscar blues floating around your local theatres. It's loud and fast, brimming with colors and otherworldly creatures, parallel dimensions and English accents. And despite all the poking and stretching to the script Bob Shaye and New Line Cinema have been doing over the past few years, Writer/Director Chris Weitz has managed to finagle a satisfying, controversy-proof story from Philip Pullman's source material. It's a cozy niche that the tale snuggles into, between the mounting gloom of Harry Potter and the wan Christian glow of Narnia. And if there was any doubt as to the amount of real estate available for another fantasy franchise in Hollywood, you can erase it now. Lyra Belacqua is here to stay.
Part of the excitement buzzing around The Golden Compass is the delectable smorgasbord of fantasy lore it employs. Opening with a Dickensian orphan's tale, Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is introduced as the ragamuffin troublemaker at Jordan College, a blue blood English boarding school at Oxford. Her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), funds her stay at Jordan, endeavoring on mischievous adventures of his own, the current one involving a quest for Dust in parallel dimensions. The Magisterium, a big brother presence over The Golden Compass world, outlaws the very mention of Dust and fiercely opposes Lord Asriel's research.
Troubling Jordan College is a case of the Gobblers, a mysterious group that's kidnapping children from the streets, blanketing the entire school in a nervous pallor. And when Lyra's friend Roger disappears, she takes an opportunity to join Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), a special friend to the school, on a quest to rescue him from the shadowy sect. Ms. Coulter is an elegant being, her daemon (I should explain this daemon bit: they are physical manifestations of a person's soul, appearing as an animal that trots alongside their companion) is a ferocious golden monkey, seemingly helping small Lyra out of her own charitable goodness. But Ms. Coulter's intentions are sinister and Lyra only just escapes her clutches, joining up with Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), a wily cowboy aeronaut, and Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellan), an armored bear under contract. Things get even whackier when the witch Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green) starts prophesizing, swooping in and looking pretty, shooting arrows like a hippie Indian.
Reading over my synopsis again, I'm realizing I haven't even addressed the actual golden compass, known as an alethiometer. Mr. Pullman's realm is obviously a dense one, obsessively constructed to play with the golden clouds of our imagination. The alethiometer is a unique, endangered device in Lyra's possession that, when asked correctly, will answer any question. There you have it. Such a wealth of dreamy ideas is quite a lot for a single film to chew. For it's size (just under two hours), Chris Weitz's adaptation probably forked too big a bite.
But this is more of a compliment than a criticism. The technical work put into every corner of this film is a glorious achievement. From the costumes to the set design to the location work to the camera work, the sound design, lighting design, the CGI and the score--it's all, really all of it, magnificent handiwork. It's just that Mr. Weitz allots only the bare minimum screen time to spend in each of the many kingdoms in his realm. Just when we've learned our way around Jordan College, we're flicked away to Gyptian water vessel, only to blink and find ourselves trotting along an arctic glacier.
The Harry Potter franchise faced this dilemma, struggling to find the fine balance between running length and story depth, only recently finding resolution in the previous two films. I don't quite understand the balance, but it seems to lie in careful selections of what material from the original source to use in the adaptation. The Potter people choose material that's telling of its characters, skimming over the lesser plot points so as to hold a comfortable pace when showcasing the juicy stuff. I expect Chris Weitz will better calibrate this pacing in the sure-to-come sequels. But for now, the consequence means only having a glancing idea of Ms. Coulter and Lord Asriel, and only the briefest of time spent in each of the film's wondrous locales.
But screen time aside, The Golden Compass is a bright picture, both physically and intellectually. It's more delightful than the big three (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Narnia), not entrenched in the literary dignity of Lord of the Rings, nor judged with such unending plagues of book-faithfuls as with Harry Potter, and not tied so dully to the Christian legend as The Chronicles of Narnia is. There's room for His Dark Materials. And that's undeniably good news. Samuel Osborn
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