As someone who sees about 200 films a year, I am always thankful when filmmakers find a new approach, or use an old angle in a unique way. Even if the film isn't perfect, at least it's surprising.
DeHaan is a geeky, introverted high-schooler suffering under his dad's abuse, as his mother lies dying. DeHaan's only friend is popular cousin Russell. When these boys”along with a slick class president”find a hole in the woods, they also find an alien crystal that gives them superpowers: specifically, telekinesis. These powers warp the teenagers' personalities; the good become heroic, the bad become villains.
What makes this genesis story unique? DeHaan is obsessed with filming everything. So when he starts being able to move things with his mind, the little digital camera all of the sudden can float anywhere. It's a great way to explain the documentary style and motivate the story in a brand new fashion. Does this technique get old, bending its own rules at times? Yes, especially when the film needs to rely on a blog-addict with another camera or closed circuit security to fill in the story gaps.
However, the simple emotions are effective; these unknown actors do a credible job. Also, this is an engaging way to revive superhero mythology. Finally, Chronicle makes one brilliant move that many other films in its oeuvre miss, it follows the more interesting character”the villain, as his mind twists”instead of the bland, noble hero.
Gothic horror gets an artful look in this Edwardian ghost story. So it's terrifying how much of the plot ends up being cliché. Radcliffe's first flick after the Harry Potter series is good only for its camera tricks and set dressing.
Radcliffe is a widower lawyer, raising his small son, and grieving so much that he's about to lose his job. In order to stay employed, he has to oversee business at a creepy island mansion partially separated from the rural mainland by a marsh that floods at high tide, unreachable by horse or the recently invented automobile. Trouble is the estate is haunted, and every time the ghost”the title character”is seen, a child dies.
So we have a Headless Horseman-like mystery. The set is fantastic: dark and eerie. That's the good part. The bad part is that so much of this tale relies on leaps of logic and plot holes. The villagers seem too stupid or scared to tell Radcliffe that he's stirring up a vengeful, child-murdering ghost. They also don't move once their offspring start dying. Our hero doesn't even think for himself when he sees the first kid expire! The marsh is supposedly not traversable, but someone erected a giant cross right in the middle of it.
The spirit of the movie aims to scare, and it often does. The execution of these kids is unspeakable. The execution of the plot could be better.
Mary Norton's classic The Borrowers is a well-loved children's book repeatedly adapted for film and television since 1953. It's about secret, little people who live in the walls and floors of our houses, taking forgotten things so they can survive. The Secret World of Arrietty is the 2010 Japanese version recently polished up for an American audience.
Arrietty (Mendler) is the daughter of the tiny borrowers. She knows she is to remain undetected by humans. However, when she meets young Shawn (Henrie) in her cottage garden, our heroine bends the rules to encourage the sickly boy. The problem is that Shawn's housekeeper (Burnett) once also saw the little people and has been on a lifelong quest to prove her sanity.
Arrietty was overseen by Hayao Miazaki, the famous animator of Princess Mononoke and Oscar-winner Spirited Away. His anime is simplified and full of weird magic. People either love or hate it, especially for its broad, flat style and surrealistic qualities. This film has much less of Miazaki's strangeness and much more of his obsession with nature. It sometimes stops to fixate on things like a reflection in a dewdrop. In those drawn-out moments, the story screeches to a halt and shrinks to the diminutive size of its lead character. Mostly, Arrietty is a colorful, fun adaptation of Norton's wondrous work.
