Skellig

Recipe for a good movie. First, as the base, you take an award winning novel, two awards in this case are better than one, then you add a generous portion of creativity, from Brignull and Jankell you could hardly expect anything less, and finally you throw in the right amount of great talent which the casting people (whoever was responsible) were not stingy about doing. Follow this process and you get a good movie. I did not specify what kind, genre or type of movie because the formula should work with just about all types.

In this case it's about a fantasy/mystery/social drama kind of movie, not at all what attracts the general population of moviegoers. Some movie connaisseurs will find it hard to resist one of the elements of this recipe and if the critics favour the result, then more movie lovers will care to give it a look. Finally when you add the reviews of all those that have seen the movie and like it, you will get a good rating; (44.4% had rated it 8 or more, at the time I wrote this review), which in turn will hopefully attract more and more viewers.

That's not at all why I watched it or why I liked it or even why I'm recommending it by giving it a really good rating. I am a fan of Tim Roth, have been for some time. I am a fan of Kelly Macdonald, just recently since I watched the HBO series 'Boardwalk Empire'; she caught my attention in that series, thus I've been looking for projects where she plays a role and so I stumbled on this fine movie.

Roth and Macdonald play their characters as well as you'd expect, certainly as well as I expected. Bill Milner was the surprise for me as the main and most important part in the movie is played by this fourteen year old. His character is the thread that binds all the parts of this movie and he pulled it off like a pro.

I don't care for fantasy movies and unless a similar set of circumstances occurs, I'll likely not see one for a long time. At the end of this movie I felt good about life just a little bit more and for a fleeting moment. Whatever your reasons are for watching it, the right recipe or the right set of circumstances, in either case, don't miss it. If on the other hand you don't believe the recipe has merit, don't agree with the talent I referred to or are not a fan of any of the key actors, you won't like this movie; also if you have little time to spare and only get to watch a few movies now and then and require a sure mass entertainment product, stick with the tried and true candy-ass movies you always watch and you won't go wrong.

Skellig was one of my childhood books and it has stuck with ever since I was 10 years old (at my school there were two camps for a little while, the Chamber of Secrets camp and the Skellig camp, I was in the latter). I was always sure that in the right hands it could translate into a great film, but was never sure who's hands those were.

My mind certainly didn't ever even consider Annabel Jankel, especially after she aided in the insulting filmic version of one of my other childhood loves (Super Mario Bros.). But, all in all, I was very impressed. Casting was near perfection, especially Tim Roth and John Simm, relative newcomer Skye Bennett also did very well in what was probably the most difficult role of them all (Mina). Kelly Macdonald was also on good form as the mother, however she didn't get nearly enough face time and a good few of her better moments from the book were omitted.

Luckily that and an amusing moment involved Michael's father desperately searching for the missing aspirin while in the grip of a hangover were the only parts cut from the tale. The ending felt a bit more blatant than it had been in the book, I would've like the 'dancing' scene and Skellig's curing of the baby to have felt more distant and dreamlike as they did in the novel. Still, Skellig himself looked fantastic and the production team did well to steer clear of the temptation of religious iconography, it was as David Almond likely intended it, a heartwarming tale of love, intrigue, the natural and the supernatural. All of those ideas translated perfectly, and I'm glad to see Skellig maintained his ever entertaining penchant for brown ale and 27 and 53.

Given the cast I thought I couldn't go wrong with this.

My mistake.

I felt the film a string of wasted opportunities. A cast to die for thrown at a script littered with tropes. A magical element very much underutilised. Questions left hanging unanswered but the mystery so little fleshed out that the absence of answers is met with a shrug in any case.

The characterisation is shallow. The misanthrope turned inexplicable saviour. Inexplicable dislike transformed into equally inexplicable friendship. And vice-versa. All these things could have been better set up, but instead they seemed to rely on the very existence of such tropes to work - oh, the audience is familiar with this sort of thing happening so they won't question it sort of logic. It happens in the movies so here it is again happening in a movie.

Throughout the film veers towards the mawkish on the back of a plot so threadbare that the moment you know what the crisis is you know precisely how it will be resolved by what means.

I boosted my rating a star or so in acknowledgement that this film is probably targeted at an older-children, young-adult audience and I just ain't there no more, but I can't help feeling this is one for conservative parents who see all the boxes ticked, the kind of parents whose children you feel sorry for if their children are actually capable of thinking.

Safe, predictable fare for unthinking children, then. Otherwise avoid. Above all, don't be seduced by that cast list.

I knew very little about the movie when I stumbled upon it on the TV schedule, but something in the summery seemed right, so I decided to give it a watch. Never regretted my decision. It's acted superbly and directed without a drop of excess, and considering the story this quite an achievement. Hollywood would've made it into a sentimental mush thankfully it's not the case. I was annoyed however with the title given to it in Hebrew which is almost a matter of habit with films translated here, in this case both the name and the summery provided were in-fact an unnecessary spoiler, which the original title avoids unless you already know the book, which is unlikely in Israel. I'm going to look for the book now, it must be a real treat.

A beautiful and compelling movie...

I read the book when I was fourteen years old and never forgot it, in fact I loved it so much that I was determined to make a movie after it. Sadly this version was made first, but I'm not angry for it is truly a worthy adaption, I only wish it played in the cinema. Most kid movies nowadays are filled with rot and trash, this film however is packed with good morals and deep characters.

A must see for fans of the book and certainly for any child around or adult for that matter. David Almond should be proud and I hope this film moves into the public's eye, cause a better kids movie I have yet to watch. The graphics are perfect and the book to screenplay format works wonderfully. Tim Roth does an excellent job, who would have thought Ted the bellhop/Mr Orange could have acted as an angel/bird, well the awesome Taurus pulled his weight and shines. The children also are great, in fact the cast and crew together made an amazing film!

100 out 10