Of all the genres Hollywood has offered us since the creation of the moving picture--otherwise known as movies, is that of the fantasy film. Oh, there have been many of them, but not quite as many as, say comedies, war, or even musicals. Even though "The Nutcracker" is not a unique subject matter, "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms" certainly has a different twist to an old story.
All Clara Stahlbaum (Mackenzie Foy) wants is a key--a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift from her late mother, Marie (Anna Madeley). A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer's (Morgan Freeman) annual Christmas party, leads her to the coveted key--which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. It's there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip (Jayden Fowora-Knight), a gang of mice and the regents, Sugar Plum (Keira Knightley), Hawthorne (Eugenio Derbez) and Shiver (Richard E. Grant) who preside over three realms: Land of Sweets, Land of Flowers and Land of Snowflakes. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren), to retrieve Clara's key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world.
Others to round out the cast are Matthew McFadyen as Mr. Stahlbaum, Clara's father, Ellie Bamber as Louise Stahlbaum, Clara's sister, Tom Sweet as Fritz Stahlbaum as Clara's brother and Jack Whitehall as Harlequin.
Instead of only one director of this film, it has two in the form of seasoned veteran Lasse Halstrom ("ABBA: The Movie" '77, "Tuppen" '81, "My Life as a Dog" '85, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" '93, "The Cider House Rules" '99, "Chocolat" 2000, "An Unfinished Life" '05, "Dear John" '10, "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" '11, "The Hundred-Foot Journey" '14) plus others, TV and video shorts and Joe Johnston ("Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" '89, "The Rocketeer" '91, "Jumanji" '95, "Jurassic Park III" '01, "Captain America: The First Avenger" '11, "Not Safe for Work" '14) plus others and TV. With the amount of experience represented here, I'm not sure why Disney felt as though the needed two directors especially with the expertise these filmmakers carry. Certainly they were able to get their actors to extract those emotions that were needed to convince their audience that these characters were believable, but couldn't it have been created with the typical one director? In any rate, these directors will continue to make many more films to enchant their audiences. Where Disney exceled in the directing, the question with this film is actually with the writing. It was adequately written by Ashleigh Powell who also was the creator of the screen story as well. It was a suggested short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" written by E.T.A. Hoffmann and suggested by "The Nutcracker Ballet" by Marius Petipa. Powell virtually has no other film experience to her credit which is evident with this. The premise is extremely intriguing, however the execution needed more polish. First of all, it needed more cohesiveness--it had a tendency to meander a bit, and secondly, it was too slow in getting itself going and become the fun it could've been. Once it got going, it actually was very interesting and entertaining. With the lack of experience, Powell was attempting to find her film, and then, all of a sudden, she found it and then started producing a script that we, and her for that matter, captured the twist of this story. She has a couple more films which will be released in the near future. So with these, we will see how is performs. Production value wise, the best thing about this was the costume design by Jenny Beavan and the music which housed excerpts of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's classic "The Nutcracker Suite". And I would be remiss in not mentioning the slick visual effects predominantly designed by MPC (Moving Picture Company) which were seamless.
If fantasy films with lavish production values are a favorite for you, you'll love this, however if a cohesive, tight script is more your liking, this needed some polish. Certainly, because of the grandiose of the production, this has to be seen on the big screen. And what a better way to see it than also in a 3D format.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG 99mins.
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