The Golden Compass: Movie Review (2007)

Written and directed by Chris Weitz, based on the novels by Philip Pullman, 114 minutes, rated PG-13.

Much like Joe Wright's forthcoming film "Atonement," Chris Weitz's "The Golden Compass" scores best in that it's undeniably a great-looking movie.

A very good Nicole Kidman, for instance, is a golden vision of cinematic perfection, slinking with smiling menace through an imperfect movie stymied by an unnecessarily dense script and a chafe, baited ending that offers more disappointment than satisfaction.

Weitz based his script on the first book in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and he uses his $180 million budget to create a world that hovers somewhere between the sterility of science fiction and the richness of fantasy. As a result, the movie can be beautiful and harrowing, but too often, it also is canned and derivative.

In many ways, "Compass" will remind viewers of 2005's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," a superior film that grabbed audiences from the start with the dramatic pull offered by its well-rounded characters and story, and the seamless incorporation of its special effects, which were among the year's best.

Though "Compass" follows "Narnia" in that it has created something of a stir within the restless Catholic League, which has since condemned the movie for what it views as atheist undertones, it otherwise is nowhere near on par with "Narnia."

What's missing isn't just a sense of magic to the production and a clear idea of all the evil working to undo young Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), who is in possession of the golden compass of the title, an alethiometer used to mine the truth in all things asked of it. What's critically missing here is soul, gathering momentum and a lasting element of danger, all of which would have helped "Compass" to match "Narnia's" operatic tone.

About the compass of the title. Lyra receives it from her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig, wasted), who instructs her to keep it hidden from Kidman's Mrs. Coulter, a glam tour-de-force who represents the Magisterium (or the Catholic Church--you decide), and who is all about crushing free will in children. So, yes, she's about as warm and snuggly as an ice pick. Or that other Coulter--Ann.

When Mrs. Coulter demands that Lyra accompany her on a journey away from Jordan College, where Lyra attends school, Lyra is seduced into believing that she'll be going to the north, where Asriel has departed for his own adventures and a friend of hers has gone missing.

Along with her "daemon" Pantalaimon (voiced by Freddie Highmore), a furry little beast that represents an extension of Lyra's soul (everybody in the movie has one of these creatures), she climbs into Coulter's sleek-looking Zeppelin and off they go--straight into trouble, the heart of which is revealed when Lyra comes to learn all that Coulter is about.

Helping Lyra fight the Magisterium is the warrior polar bear Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellen), whose battle with the ferocious polar bear, Ragnar (Ian McShane), allows the movie a needed slice of action, as well as the Gyptians, scores of witches and even Sam Elliott as a gun-toting cowboy, all of whom factor into the final battle scene.

In less than two hours, "The Golden Compass" packs in all of this and more--too much more, really--building questions along the way that are left unanswered in one of the year's most rushed, unsatisfying endings, one that departs radically from the book. While those questions likely will be answered in future movies, the grumbling among the audience members at my packed screening suggested that at least a few of them should have been answered right there and then.

And they were right.

Grade: C+