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"The Golden Compass" (PG-13, 1 hr., 53 min.)
A 12-year-old girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) battles dark forces in the adult world that conspire to rob children of their souls and spiritual freedom in "The Golden Compass," based on the first novel in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy. Is the film, as adapted and directed by Chris Weitz, gorgeous, mysterious, exciting and swift? It is, by golly. Will lovers of the trilogy feel robbed by the movie's abrupt and incomplete ending, as well as other changes? No doubt. Yet most teens -- and many 10- to 12-year-olds -- will relish the film nonetheless. As for the controversy over author Pullman's portrayal of the Magisterium, the august body that rules the trilogy's imaginary world, as a metaphorical critique of the Catholic Church, it is barely discernible. The Magisterium seems more like an authoritarian government in the film.
Story elements that could upset some preteens (parents really need to know their kids' fears and sensitivities for this film) involve the abduction of children by undercover operatives called gobblers. In the world of "The Golden Compass," human beings' souls are visible as animal spirits or "daemons" (pronounced demons) traveling at their sides. (Lyra's daemon is a shape-shifter called Pantalaimon, voiced by Freddie Highmore.) We see an abducted child separated from his daemon in a process that looks highly painful. There are battle scenes involving humans, armored bears and flying witches, fighting with bows and arrows, guns, swords and rifles. Wounds are not shown and those who die disintegrate in a shower of sparks, yet the scenes are intense. The huge warrior bear, Iorek Byrnison (voice of Ian McKellen), is quite scary until Lyra befriends him.
Lyra is a rebellious, spirited orphan living a sheltered life at a college in an alternate world that looks like a blend of Victorian and 1930s England, but not quite, with all those daemons. Her stern uncle and guardian, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), is an explorer and scientist. Asriel thinks he has found a material in the Arctic called Dust that offers a portal into other universes. The Magisterium deems this discovery a threat. A well-connected, secretive woman scientist, Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman at her iciest), takes Lyra on an expedition. To protect her from Mrs. Coulter's possible scheming, the Master of the college gives Lyra an alethiometer, or golden compass, which will point her toward the truth. This comes in handy when Lyra's friend Roger (Ben Walker) is snatched by the gobblers. Lyra escapes Mrs. Coulter, and aided by insurgents called Gyptians, a cowboy pilot (Sam Elliott), and the bear Iorek Byrnison, she sets off to find Roger.
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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME
-- OK FOR KIDS 6 AND OLDER:
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" (G) -- This unpretentious little fantasy should entrance kids 6 and older, despite occasional glitches in its story line and special effects. Kindly, 243-year-old Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman) announces he is soon to leave this world and will turn over his store full of magical toys to manager Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), a meek would-be composer. Eric (Zach Mills), a little boy who hangs out at the store, tries to help her. Henry (Jason Bateman), Mr. Magorium's staid new accountant, has no clue. PG-ish elements include hints of Mr. Magorium's mortality. (When he dies, the camera pans down to his shoes, then cuts to a headstone.) Little ones may be unnerved by a wall in the store that bulges and darkens with anger. An innocent friendship between Henry and Eric has the two playing in Eric's room, so Eric's mom finds a stranger with her son -- a pointlessly awkward moment.
-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"Enchanted" (PG) -- Fantasy and reality collide in this clever romantic comedy, which droops a bit in its second half, but still has charm, wit and whimsy enough to delight kids 8 and older. Adults will get its inspired musical send-ups of old-style Disney animated features. A lovely lass in an animated fairy tale is off to marry her prince when his sorceress stepmom shoves her down a hole. Giselle (Amy Adams) bursts through a manhole cover in Times Square as a flesh-and-blood person in a live-action world. She's rescued by a divorced lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his little daughter (Rachel Covey). The prince (James Marsden) and the sorceress (Susan Sarandon) soon follow, and Giselle must choose her reality. There is talk of the lawyer's fiancee (Idina Menzel) not spending the night as a good example for his daughter. Adults drink. A chipmunk pal of Giselle's commits toilet humor, and rats and roaches swarm in a funny scene. Giselle senses kissing isn't all there is to romance, but the sexual innuendo is mild.
"Fred Claus" (PG) -- Vince Vaughn effortlessly combines hipness and warmth as Santa's ne'er-do-well older sibling Fred from Chicago in this amusing but odd hybrid of cleverness and cliches. Fred gets arrested for impersonating a Salvation Army Santa. His brother Nick, aka the real Santa (Paul Giamatti), sends bail and his sleigh, insisting Fred come to the North Pole for the Christmas rush. When a snide efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) threatens to close Santa's workshop, Fred must come through for his bro. There is occasional semi-crude language and mildly suggestive humor, likely to go over heads younger than 10. Tall Fred and short elf Willie (John Michael Higgins) stand at urinals in a visual gag. There are slapstick fights with no injuries and Santa has ninja elf bodyguards. A boy (Bobb'e J. Thompson) Fred befriended in Chicago lands in an orphanage.
-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:
"August Rush" (PG) -- Preposterous and pretentious though it is, this modern fairy tale about a genius orphan (Freddie Highmore) who reconnects with his lost parents though music could sweep along kids 10 and older, though it plays like a dizzying music video. The 11-year-old is obsessed with sound and rhythm -- an unschooled music prodigy. He runs away from his group home to Manhattan, where a Fagin-like hustler called Wizard (Robin Williams) notes his talent and turns him into a street guitarist, naming him August Rush. He escapes Wizard and gets a scholarship to Juilliard. Interwoven with the boy's story is one of a brief romance 11 years earlier between a cellist (Keri Russell) and an Irish rocker (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Wizard shoves August and threatens him with a blade. That and other lost-in-the-city moments could scare under-10s. Adult characters drink, make rare drug references and use mild profanity.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"The Golden Compass" (NEW) -- A 12-year-old girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) battles dark forces in the adult world that conspire to rob children of their souls in "The Golden Compass," based on the first novel in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy. The movie is gorgeous, mysterious, exciting and swift. Most teens and many 10- to 12-years-old (depending on their fears and sensitivities) will love it, though devotees of the books may feel cheated by the incomplete ending and other differences. The orphaned Lyra is looked after by professors in a college, set in what looks like a blend of Victorian and 1930s England -- except in their world humans are accompanied through life by animal spirits or "daemons" that visibly embody their souls. Lyra's daemon is a shape-shifter called Pantalaimon (voice of Freddie Highmore). Her rarely present uncle, the stern scientist/explorer Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), has found an Arctic portal into other universes, but the autocratic ruling council, the Magisterium, disapproves of such research. Undercover "gobblers" are sent to abduct children who are separated from their daemons. Lyra is taken under the wing of the scheming Mrs. Coulter (an icy Nicole Kidman), but escapes to try to rescue a friend who has been abducted. To protect the free-spirited Lyra from Mrs. Coulter, the Master of the college has given her a much coveted alethiometer or golden compass, which always points toward the truth. A child is separated from his daemon in a process that looks like torture. Sword, gun and bow-and-arrow battles among armored bears, humans and flying witches are fairly intense, though the fallen disintegrate in a shower of sparks and no wounds are shown. Lyra's eventual ally, the armored bear Iorek Byrnison (voice of Ian McKellen) is scary at first.
"This Christmas" -- A character-rich comedy-drama full of good actors, good cheer, and LOTS of soap-opera cliches, this movie could draw lots of teens. Members of a large African-American family gather in the L.A. home of their mother (Loretta Devine) and her boyfriend (Delroy Lindo) for Christmas. The sparks soon fly among the many siblings (key characters played by Idris Elba, Regina King, Sharon Leal, Columbus Short and singer Chris Brown, with Mekhi Phifer as a love interest). The sexual innuendo includes a vibrator joke, implied overnights among wed and unwed couples, an infidelity subplot, but no nudity or explicitness. There are muted fights -- one with a gun brandished -- mild profanity, smoking and drinking. OK for most teens.
"Beowulf" -- Robert Zemeckis' computer-animated take on the ancient Anglo-Saxon saga (with live actors digitally morphed into animated figures) looks like a handsome graphic novel and often achieves a mythic tone, but at other moments it seems comically grandiose and unpoetic. The monster Grendel (Crispin Glover as a decaying, skeletal figure) attacks King Hrothgar's (Anthony Hopkins) court, and Norse hero Beowulf (Ray Winstone) arrives to kill the creature. The violence is graphic, with men impaled or torn in half. (PLOT GIVEAWAY ALERT: In a climactic battle, Beowulf rips out the heart of a dragon.) Aside from drunkenness, the film's R-ish elements are sexual -- references to lust, fornication and ravishing of virgins. Weapons become corny phallic symbols. For instance, the hero's nakedness as he fights Grendel is hidden behind strategically placed swords. We see bare behinds and Grendel's mother (Angelina Jolie), a kind of supermodel with tentacles, is naked-ish, with details hidden. Too violent and sexualized for some middle-schoolers.
-- R's:
"Awake" (NEW) -- Somehow a good cast got attached to this tacky B-movie and they make it surprisingly watchable. It is OK fare for high-schoolers 16 and up, but only if they can bear to see a close-up depiction of heart transplant surgery -- scalpels, blood, cracked ribs, organs and all. Hayden Christensen plays Clay, a trust-fund kid who needs a heart transplant and is secretly in love with a young woman (Jessica Alba) his mom (Lena Olin) would not accept. His friend Jack (Terrence Howard) is the doctor Clay wants to do his surgery. A heart donor is found and Clay goes under anesthesia for the operation. In a rare mistake, he is immobilized but awake during the surgery and amidst the pain, overhears a plot against him. What to do when you only exist in a kind of limbo? There are also steamy kissing scenes, implied rather than explicit sexual situations, backview and other implied nudity, a suicide overdose, brief flashbacks of spousal abuse and cocaine use, a self-defense murder, smoking, drinking, and profanity.
"Hitman" -- Better than you'd expect a film based on a video game to be, "Hitman" still defies narrative logic and revs on mindless, machine-gun pumping mayhem and sexist humor. Characters speak in half-phrases (occasionally in Russian with subtitles) -- ideal for the international market. The perversely moralistic antihero, Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant), a laconic, genetically engineered assassin, is suddenly protective of Nika (Olga Kurylenko), a sex slave belonging to the (fictional) president of Russia. Meanwhile, he's targeted by Interpol (led by Dougray Scott). Along with blood-spattering violence, the movie has seminudity, strong sexual innuendo, a brief nongraphic sexual situation and profanity. Not for teens under 16.
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