I remember reading this book when I was younger, although my memories of it were quite foggy by the time I got around to watching the movie. Sadly, I cannot say that it was a great movie. Rather, it's a palatable movie that suffers a lot from the shift from book to movie.
One thing that really threw me off is the acting of the children. Leslie was very sprite-like, but there was a serious artificiality to her performance that makes it very hard to believe she actually believes what she's saying. Jess on the other hand suffers from only using the acting range that Tom Welling practices on Smallville. That's not to say that Tom Welling's necessarily a limited actor, but that's to say that it's all I see in Jess and that weakens his characterization. Jess' younger sister Maybelle is quite cute and surprisingly believable as the annoying younger sister and most of the other players do a decent job with what little roles they have.
I really remember loving the story when I was younger because it related directly to my own imaginative flights of fancy and the real-world portion was also relevant to me at the same time. However, when the story gets translated into a movie format, it drags a lot because, in the book, a lot of the conflict was inside the character rather than outside. And so we get stuck with a lot of brooding scenes (hence the Smallville reference) and not a lot of external conflict (or internal conflict fueling external conflict). With such weak hooks and lack of believability in the actors, it's hard to really get into the picture because there's nothing bringing you in and a whole lot making it hard to be similarly immersed.
But it's not bad. In fact, the film shines best in the real world segments because the conflict is much more palpable and there is good drama there. It's just that when you have to suffer through all the less believable flights of fancy (not unbelievable because it's fantastic, but rather, because it's just not well driven or expressed), it really bogs down the film. I personally think a rewrite that reworks the story, or the perspective of the story, might have been good for its screen debut.
But it's clean and simple and deals with issues that children sometimes have to face, which I can applaud it for. I just wish it were done in such a way that it drew me better into the story rather than emoting it to me. It's passable. 6/10.
One thing that really threw me off is the acting of the children. Leslie was very sprite-like, but there was a serious artificiality to her performance that makes it very hard to believe she actually believes what she's saying. Jess on the other hand suffers from only using the acting range that Tom Welling practices on Smallville. That's not to say that Tom Welling's necessarily a limited actor, but that's to say that it's all I see in Jess and that weakens his characterization. Jess' younger sister Maybelle is quite cute and surprisingly believable as the annoying younger sister and most of the other players do a decent job with what little roles they have.
I really remember loving the story when I was younger because it related directly to my own imaginative flights of fancy and the real-world portion was also relevant to me at the same time. However, when the story gets translated into a movie format, it drags a lot because, in the book, a lot of the conflict was inside the character rather than outside. And so we get stuck with a lot of brooding scenes (hence the Smallville reference) and not a lot of external conflict (or internal conflict fueling external conflict). With such weak hooks and lack of believability in the actors, it's hard to really get into the picture because there's nothing bringing you in and a whole lot making it hard to be similarly immersed.
But it's not bad. In fact, the film shines best in the real world segments because the conflict is much more palpable and there is good drama there. It's just that when you have to suffer through all the less believable flights of fancy (not unbelievable because it's fantastic, but rather, because it's just not well driven or expressed), it really bogs down the film. I personally think a rewrite that reworks the story, or the perspective of the story, might have been good for its screen debut.
But it's clean and simple and deals with issues that children sometimes have to face, which I can applaud it for. I just wish it were done in such a way that it drew me better into the story rather than emoting it to me. It's passable. 6/10.