Bookworm

Much of what kept me watching this film was seeing Elijah Wood, carrying a backpack, tramping about the glorious scenery of New Zealand once more. It was not so long ago when he played a hobbit... I agree with reviewers that this film falls apart half way through, and the ending feels horribly forced. The acting is competent as are the technical elements, but the characters are caricatures and I found myself not really caring about them. There's a bit of unnecessary dialog at the end that's totally inappropriate for young viewers. Starts off with some good ideas but, like the trek in the film, completely loses its way.

Elijah Wood was pretty good with the script he was given. The premise was good, a father/ daughter getting to know each other. The girls script was superficial and lacked depth. Not relatable at all. The sub plot with the was odd at best with the couple.

What I mostly couldn't get over was the multi-day hiking was the tent, the gear, the food, the size of the packs etc. There is no way they could carry that stuff with the bags they had. I know I should've got over it. But they were wearing denim? In the outdoors? Shocking.

The music and sound choices were very budget and lacked imagination. I'm guessing the director went online and downloaded all the free ones.

I was really looking forward to this one. When i saw the trailer i thought it would be a really fun and funny movie to watch. They had advance screenings playing at Hoyts cinemas so iwent along. Unfortunately in terms of humour, most of the funny spots were in the trailer which meant the movie paced along like a humourless adventure movie with a lack of adventure. The actors did a good enough job with what they had to work with. The biggest problem was the movie didnt know what it wanted to be. The sub plot with the random couple tramping was stupid n took the movie way off track. And the behaviour of the couple in the tent (with one really dodgy line) followed by the video of them, i thought totally derailed the movie.

This had the potential to be a fun movie along the lines of The Hunt for the Wilderpeople but instead falls way flat. It definitely needed a Taika Waititi touch to it.

Now, vanity projects can be good in theory, but this is decisively not one of those. Even for a movie about a circus magician, it relies on contrivances beyond any reason - from an implausible accident which sends Mildred's mother into a coma at the start of the narrative to the ludicrous complications introduced in its 2nd half - to be capped off with the similarly contrived ending.

It's hardly worth it to put up with those contrivances for the sake of (fairly flat) humour or characterization either. In particular, the pair of completely transparent villains have no real rational reason to be where they are, and are merely a vehicle for cheap drama and cheap jokes - whichever the script calls for at the time. While the scenes where tricks by Wood's character (Strawn Wise - had to look it up now) repeatedly fail to impress highly skeptical and rationalistic Mildred do get a chuckle, the overall father-daughter drama is fairly cringey.

And it really doesn't help that while Mildred has definite reason to dislike the absentee father, she ALSO never seems to either particularly like her mother, nor care for her well-being after the accident beyond the most cursory manner. Her fate matters so little to the narrative she is eventually forgotten entirely and never brought up again - something which I wish would happen to this film as well.

I really wanted to like this, but nothing in this movie fits quite right. The child actress tries so hard, but her acting feels forced. The quirkiness of the whole premise doesn't resonate with the audience, unfortunately.

If they had incorporated more elements related to the title-like her being an actual bookworm-it might have created some meaningful connections and depth. Sadly, there's nothing here to tie the title to the story in any real way.

I'm not sure what the budget was, but it seems like most of it went into the panther CGI. Elijah is, well, Elijah-but even his performance doesn't add much value to the production. None of the characters are particularly likable or funny enough to carry the film. Overall, it's a disappointing watch.