The Quad

Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: Entertainment

Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman headline "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." Hoffman does not play an autistic man; he does not portray a na've "Graduate" nor a streetwise "Midnight Cowboy." Portman does not dance scantily clad; she stays away from New Jersey and is not a queen/senator in a galaxy far, far away. With all this being said, the solid performances by both Hoffman and Portman in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" help bring back the family movie.

"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" refers to a magical toy store run by an eccentric Edward Magorium (Hoffman). Molley Mahoney (Portman) is Magorium's manager/apprentice. Mr. Magorium brings in an accountant - named Henry (Jason Bateman) - to try and organize the store's finances. The store creates an enchanted atmosphere to facilitate impossible events. For the store to continue displaying magical properties, the patrons and workers need to believe in the store. When Mahoney's faith in magic is questioned, Henry and a little boy without any friends (Zach Mills) must make Mahoney believe again.

The two main themes of the story are not novel ideas. The first addresses the common childhood misconception that "If one believes in magic then they can make it real." The second involves the favorite after-school special moral, "If one believes in themselves then that person can accomplish anything." These ideas are common themes found in children's stories and in family movies. This makes it hard to try and present this material in a way to keep parents and/or non-adolescents interested in the movie. To accomplish this, the writer hid many jokes in the film that young children would not recognize. Many "family" films no longer care about entertaining the parents or older siblings and in turn are excruciatingly painful to watch. Those "family" movies just want to keep the youngsters happy, so their parents will purchase overpriced merchandise from that film. "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" returned to the classic style of family film and made it not only tolerable, but enjoyable to watch.

This film marks the directorial debut of Zach Helm. Helm wrote the film "Stranger than Fiction" (starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson) and wrote "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" as well. The choices that Helm uses in creating the magical elements of the toy store come across wonderfully on the screen. There is a book that produces any toy imaginable, and a magical door (reminiscent of "Howl's Moving Castle") that leads to multiple hidden sections of the store, where books/toys that come to life. Helm made the right choice to write and direct "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" because there is an apparent cohesiveness between these two aspects of the film. If Helm did not direct this film, then many of the subtleties of the store would have been lost. Helm also made the right decision by casting Hoffman as the title character.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools