nuthillproductions
We live in an age where literacy is on the wane. The reviews of this film clearly are from people who do not realize the book was produced in 1946 and was popular in an era when people commonly used their imagination and did not expect to be told what to feel as is common in film. It predates the books about Narnia(1950) but not The Hobbit (1937). This was an era when children's literature was in a renaissance that lasted for decades. I remember loving the atmosphere of enchantment set by the book when I read it as a child and was surprised to see it had been filmed. The caustic reviewers should inform themselves about this form of literature in order to know what they're talking about. I'd like to see the film despite the fact that film productions often deal with subtle nuances from books like Jack the Ripper performing surgery. The Narnia stories thus far are amazingly well done all things considered and there is a lot to consider.
Robert
One question: Are you under 13? If so, you may enjoy "Moonacre".Are you over 13? If so, you will likely find "Moonacre" to be a steaming pile of crap, worthy of being avoided at all cost.If the filmmakers could've made "Moonacre" any more trite, clichéd and formulaic, then by god, they wou'd've done so. Every conceivable fantasy film trope is trotted out and juiced within an inch of its pulp. Imperiled princess? Evil uncle? Hapless guardian? Arranged marriage? Checks all around. White unicorn? Black lion? Check and double-check. Neither advance the plot, but are just there as signifiers of "magical nobility", of course. Add to this a cast of patently 2-dimensional characters, portentious voice-over exposition, cringe-worthy dialogue and some of the cheesiest CGI effects this side of a freshman college course in CGI, and you have this entire sorry mess figured out within the first 5 minutes. There's really nothing to recommend "Moonacre" and SO much to recommend against it.
Yuliya11
Whatever you do, if you liked the book, don't see this movie. The whole idea of the book is rather ruined in order to make it appeal to people who didn't read the wonderful book. Starting with the fact that it isn't actually a fantasy book. So many things are added simply to make it seem more "magical" when that isn't what the book was about, and many things are just entirely wrong or tossed out so there isn't confusion when an idea was really quite simple. Everything is overdone to the extreme. The simple elegance in the description in the book is lost. I would only recommend seeing this movie if all you want is a run-of-the mill fantasy princess movie. I wouldn't say it has spark or shine at all. Don't expect anything new or a decent depiction of the wonderful story and world created by Elizabeth Goudge.
Nick A
I generally like mystery along the lines of "person goes home after a long absence, just to unlock a sh*tload of village/family secrets". This movie made me think I was up to the usual, and with some fantasy background, it sounded even better.In my opinion it didn't deliver. The beginning was good, setting the atmosphere, creating the secret, placing everything in a nice setting. Let me add also that the costume department did a splendid job too. But then the girl actually arrives at the location where loose ends flew in her face. Okay, so she's supposed to make stuff happen to lift some curse that endangers life in general, cool. You would expect a little help from someone, from either side, good or bad. But no, these people enjoy facing doom, and never did seem too interested in changing the course of events. Not the uncle (emotionless, uncaring, basically not a nice type of guy), not the archenemy (not too bright, inactive), not even the people who might actually know things. Actually, no character is worth my sympathy. Even the girl is your typical annoying child.Acting credit, on the other hand, does go the girl. The rest just plays their role, and I've seen all of them doing much better. Especially Tim Curry, whose proved potential isn't even remotely used.Sour feeling at the end. 5 out of 10 for the setting in general.
AD
