Inkheart (2009)

Inkheart is a 2009 fantasy film, directed by Iain Softley. It is based on the 2003 German novel of the same name by Cornelia Funke. The film was first slated for release on March 19, 2008, but had been pushed back to December 12, 2008 in the UK and January 23, 2009 in the US, partially because of New Line’s marketing worries in connection with the now-concluded 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

Production

The author of the book on which the film was based, Cornelia Funke, was quoted as saying that “we had our second screening (summer 2007), which went well, and I really loved the movie, but they are still changing things, especially at the end.”

As with the production of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the production progressed very slowly. The American release was originally slated for Christmas 2007, but then was changed to March 19, 2008. In addition, due to the writer’s strike, the film was further pushed back and opened January 23, 2009.

Inkheart was filmed at Shepperton Studios near London, England and on location in 2006/2007.

Plot

Mortimer “Mo” Folchart (Brendan Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter, Meggie (Eliza Bennett), share a passion for books. What they also share is an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud. But there is a danger: when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages.

On one of their trips to a secondhand book shop, Mo hears voices he hasn’t heard for years, and when he locates the book they’re coming from, it sends a shiver up his spine. It’s Inkheart, a book filled with illustrations of medieval castles and strange creatures–a book he’s been searching for since Meggie was three years old, when her mother, Resa (Sienna Guillory), vanished into its mystical world.

But Mo’s plan to use the book to find and rescue Resa is thwarted when Capricorn (Andy Serkis), the evil villain of Inkheart, kidnaps Meggie and, discovering she has inherited her father’s gift, demands that she bring his most powerful ally to life–the Shadow. Determined to rescue his daughter and send the fictional characters back where they belong, Mo assembles a small group of friends and family–some from the real world, some from the pages of books–and embarks on a daring and perilous journey to set things right.

Differences from the book

• The beginning of the movie features briefly Mo, Resa, and Meggie as a child in their house. It then fast forwards about 12 years to Meggie and Mo on their way to a book fair, where Meggie meets Dustfinger for what is technically the second time. In the beginning of the novel, the setting is Meggie and Mo’s house, where she meets Dustfinger one night after he comes to visit Mo and warn him.
• Meggie’s power is discovered by Capricorn, in the movie, after the appearance of Toto, the dog summoned by reading The Wizard of Oz, but in the novel she summons Peter Pan’s Tinkerbell.
• In the film, characters read out of their books by Darius have words written on their faces (to show that they’re only half-read out) along with the defects that appear in the book (such as Flatnose’s nose and Resa’s muteness).
• Resa’s real name (Teresa) is never mentioned in the movie.
• Farid and Dustfinger set fire to Capricorn’s house. In the book Farid and Mo did it.
• Dustfinger is taken into Inkheart by Mo. In the book he isn’t but in Inkspell he is finally taken in by a different reader.
• Mo agrees to send Dustfinger back into Inkheart. The fire juggler is reunited with Roxane, while some kind of hummingbird is sent into the real world.
• It is revealed by Fenoglio that inside Inkheart Dustfinger would die while saving his marten Gwin. Because the marten is not sent back in the book along with Dustfinger, the juggler will most likely live.
• Farid remains with Meggie’s family.
• In the movie, the paper that Fenoglio wrote and Meggie is reading from is snatched up by Mortola before she can finish reading it. Mo throws her a pen and tells her to “write”, whereupon she writes the rest of the words on her arm and reads the words as she writes. In the novel, Meggie reads straight from the piece of paper until she cannot bring herself to kill both the Shadow and Capricorn. Mo reads the rest of it, destroying them both.
• Every other creature summoned from the book is sent back, due to an addendum written by Meggie herself. In the book Meggie reads only Fenoglio’s words to defeat Capricorn and the Shadow and the people and creatures killed by the Shadow remain in the real world.
• Gwin, Dustfingers’ pet, is a ferret in the movie and a marten in the novel.
• Resa gets her voice back in the end of the movie, while in the book series she gets it back in Inkspell.
• In the movie Farid decides to wear the outfit that Elinor bought for him, while in the book he refuses to change anything.
• In the movie Fenoglio goes straight out to meet Dustfinger. In the book his grandchildren keep him from leaving for some time.
• In the movie, when Dustfinger goes home to Roxane (his ex-wife), she immediately hugs him and welcomes him back but, in the book she is nervous and hesitant toward him at first.
• In the end of the movie Farid steals a picture of Meggie. This did not happen in the book.
• Fenoglio does not swap places with The Shadow; instead he is read into Inkheart by Meggie via her addendum.
• In the movie Meggie and Elinor are taken with Mo and the book but in the novel Dustfinger takes the book, Meggie and Elinor to Capricorn’s village.
• In the movie Farid was read out with treasure but in the novel he was read out of The Thousand and One Nights by himself.
• In the book Meggie was hit by Basta for not giving him a piece of paper and slapped by Mortola for not reading but in the movie it is not so.
• In the movie Meggie and Fenoglio were locked in the crypt but in the book they were locked in a tower.
• In the movie it is Farid who steals the book off the stand but in the book it is Dustfinger .who steals it from the sleeping Farid.
• In the movie Meggie had to wear a done out(fancy-ish)dress but in the book it’s a plain white. dress made out of scratchy cotton.
• In the movie Darius had read out creatures and servants but in the book he just read out servants.
• In the movie Dustfinger’s oldest girl has Roxane’s hair but in the book she has Dustfinger’s.
• In the movie the Folchart family was in Elinor’s library when Resa disappeared and Capricorn, Basta, and Dustifinger appeared but in the book they’re at their own home and Resa and their two cats disappear.
• In the movie Dustfinger tells Mo that Resa’s out of the book and in Capricorn’s village and they go to get her but in the book Dustfinger and Farid go elsewhere and Mo goes to pick Elinor up from the airport.
• In the movie Resa was in the net the whole time and Dustfinger in the crypt but in the book they were both in nets and then transferred to the crypt.

Reception

Inkheart has received generally negative to mixed reviews from critics. It has so far received a 37% “Rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 107 reviews, with 40 reviews “Fresh” and 67 reviews “Rotten”. It received an average score of 5 and a score of 27% from top critics, based on 26 reviews. It did, however, reach a higher rating of 76% from the RT Community. Their consensus is “Heavy on cliches and light on charm, this kid-lit fantasy-adventure doesn’t quite get off the ground.” In addition, Metacritic has given the film a 47 out of 100, indicating “Mixed or Average Reviews”. IMDb has given the movie a 6.8/10, based on 1,061 votes.

Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter disliked the film, saying, “Whatever made the German novel Inkheart by Cornelia Funke so popular that it got translated into 37 languages is nowhere in evidence in its film version,” and “The main problem is the central concept itself.” On the other hand, Bill Goodykoontz of Arizona Republic enjoyed the film, saying, ” Inkheart is entertaining enough, if not always easy to follow. And if it does nothing else, at least it may inspire kids to read, if for no other reason than to help make sense of it all.” Neil Faerber gave the film a positive review saying “Inkheart cleverly enchants its viewers with lush visual effects while motivating them to get out and start reading.”

The film grossed $2,110,000 during it’s opening day in 2,655 theaters. It opened at #7 at the domestic box office with $7,725,000.

Other Information

• Also Known As: Ink Heart (USA) (alternative spelling), Tintenherz (Germany)
• Runtime: 106 min
• Country: Germany, UK, USA
• Release Date: 23 January 2009
• Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
• Tagline: Every story ever written is just waiting to become real.
• Language: English
• Color: Black and White, Color
• Sound Mix: Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS
• Certification: USA:PG, Ireland:12A, Germany:12, South Korea:All, Singapore:PG
• Filming Locations: Bourne Woods, Farnham, Surrey, England, UK
• Company: Internationale Filmproduktion Blackbird Dritte
• Budget : $60 million
• Gross revenue : $27,012,342

Cast and Credits

• Directed by : Iain Softley
• Produced by : Cornelia Funke, Ileen Maisel, Dylan Cuva
• Written by : David Lindsay-Abaire (screenplay), Cornelia Funke (novel), Gary David Goldberg
• Starring : Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, Jim Broadbent
• Music by : Javier Navarrete
• Distributed by : New Line Cinema

Trivia

• Paul Bettany’s wife, Jennifer Connelly, appears as Dustfinger’s wife.
• Factual errors: The Volkswagen Campervan that is used near the beginning of the film has a Zürich number plate, yet the cantonal coat of arms to the right of the number plate is that of the canton of Ticino (red and blue stripe). This is incorrect: The coat of arms should have been a white-blue stripe, which is the coat of arms of Zürich Canton and would correspond correctly to the number plate.

Links

• Official site
• Inkheart – IMDB
• Inkheart at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cornelia Funke’s Website
• Official Inkheart Film Commission
• Director Iain Softley and Helen Mirren Talk About Inkheart

Tags: Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany