The Family Filmgoer
Watching With Kids in Mind

By Jane Horwitz
Friday, December 7, 2007

The Golden Compass (PG-13, 113 minutes)

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" trilogy. Is the film, as adapted and directed by Chris Weitz, gorgeous, mysterious, exciting and swift? It is. 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 Pullman's portrayal of the Magisterium, the august body that rules the film'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.

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. In this word, human souls are visible as animals, or "daemons" (pronounced "demons"), traveling at their sides. (Lyra's daemon is a shape-shifter called Pantalaimon, voiced by Freddie Highmore.) 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 female 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, that will point her toward the truth. It comes in handy when Lyra's friend Roger (Ben Walker) is kidnapped by operatives, called gobblers, working for the Magisterium. She escapes Mrs. Coulter and, aided by insurgents called Gyptians, a cowboy pilot (Sam Elliott) and an armor-clad bear named Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), she sets off to find Roger.

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 the gobblers. 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.

ALSO PLAYING
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 that 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 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.

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 sendups 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 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. 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, a.k.a. the real Santa (Paul Giamatti), sends bail and his sleigh, insisting that 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.

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. 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) turns him into a street guitarist. He escapes Wizard and gets a scholarship to Juilliard. Wizard shoves August and threatens him with a blade. That and other lost-in-the-city moments could scare kids younger than 10. Drink, rare drug references, mild profanity.

PG-13s

"This Christmas." A character-rich comedy-drama full of good actors, good cheer and lots of soap opera cliches, this movie could draw teens. Members of a large family gather in the Los Angeles home of their mother (Loretta Devine) and her boyfriend (Delroy Lindo) for Christmas. The sparks soon fly among the many siblings (including 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 but nothing explicit. There are muted fights, mild profanity, smoking and drinking. Okay for most teens.

"Beowulf." Robert Zemeckis's 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 violence is graphic, with men impaled or torn in half. Aside from drunkenness, the film's R-ish elements are sexual with references to lust and fornication. Too violent and sexualized for some middle schoolers.