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The Review: The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass is a very enjoyable film. Chris Weitz has promised this above everything else and he achieves the two hours of entertainment he was after. The film is fun (‘frolicking’ comes to mind as an appropriate word) and will certainly entertain both children and adults. Happily, it does not pander to a young audience at all, and will certainly give children some not inconsiderable frights along the way. PG-13 and 12A seemed too high a rating before seeing the film, but it does not shy away from the thump and sudden death of battle.
The film opens with narration from Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), who explains the concept of parallel worlds. Galaxies and Dust swirl around the camera and it’s a very grand concept opening. Pleasingly, the subject of Dust is not skirted around at all – Serafina explains its importance and it’s made clear that Dust is integral to the story.
The camera then focuses on what seems to be our Oxford, before tracking through a window into Lyra’s world. This moment has been seen briefly in trailers and an opening in this vein has been speculated for some time. As it is, the beginning nicely sets up the audience (most of which not familiar with the book), introducing them to the concept of parallel worlds. The golden tones of Lyra’s Oxford – constant throughout the opening part of the film – are unveiled with not a little touch of film magic.
Fans of the book should delight at seeing scenes from the page reproduced very effortlessly onscreen. The first segment of the film (the book’s “Oxford” section) is the best of the movie. Lyra and Roger (Ben Walker) have a very sweet chemistry on film. Roger’s enthrallment with the wilder Lyra is well-played and readers will be pleased to learn that Lyra’s rougher edges – spitting on scholars– have not been ironed out. Her rough interaction with Lord Asriel is very charming and she and Daniel Craig work well off one another.
Dakota Blue Richards gives a very, very accomplished performance as Lyra. Her interaction with the rest of the cast is utterly convincing and her facial reactions very well done for one so young. She winces convincingly during the bear fight, grins cheekily at the appropriate times and in general embodies the spirit of Lyra with some aplomb. The way Dakota plays the (frequent) scenes where she tricks someone – Lyra’s most beloveable trait – are simply brilliant. She achieves the acting feat of letting you see (facially) Lyra’s thought process and accelerates her lines at the right places when an outrageous idea comes into Lyra’s head. Dakota is genuinely the best thing about the film and the casting directors are to be applauded for picking her out of the tens of thousands that auditioned. A convincing, fun, cheeky actress as Lyra elevates the film greatly and you will definitely have a smile on your face during certain scenes.
Lyra’s coarse dialect – flagged up in another review – is simply not a problem. Whilst Dakota naturally has a rather well-spoken accent, Lyra’s “ents” and “ain’ts” don’t feel out of place at all.
The use of daemons throughout the film is handled exceptionally well. It would have been easy to forget about them at times – as even Philip Pullman did for long stretches of The Subtle Knife – but characters’ daemons are always alive, interacting with one another and their environment realistically. For example, when Roger meets Lyra again at Bolvangar, Pantalaimon and Salcilia nuzzle; whilst earlier on, the golden monkey oppresses Pantalaimon under the table, foreshadowing later Lyra’s falling out with Mrs Coulter. The sharp-eyed will notice many such moments throughout the film. The daemons’ animation is superbly done and avoids other films’ failings with reproducing believable movement from animals. Their talking – which could have been a stumbling block – is similarly well-handled.
There are other nice touches throughout the film. On one of the occassions Lyra is first trying out the alethiometer, when she looks away as Mrs Coulter approaches, it swings repeatedly onto the Hourglass symbol, for death.
With so little of Daniel Craig on offer (he is actually reduced to “And Daniel Craig” in the credits now), it’s Sam Elliot of the adult cast who really dominates proceedings. He’s played cowboys a-plenty before and turns in a supremely polished performance as Lee Scoresby – pitch-perfect in every delivery and with a tremendous presence on screen. His fatherly relationship with Lyra is portrayed well and scenes with the two together as some of the strongest in the film. In Lyra’s world the American Lee is somewhat of an abnormality, but on film he provides a solid anchor amidst the fantasy of the rest of the proceedings. Much of the film’s humour – and it is successful – comes from his laconic observations amidst armored bears and flying witches.
Nicole Kidman is fascinating to watch. The gold dresses which haven't come across very well in stills mainly look superb and Kidman is a suitably glamourous Mrs Coulter. It's Kidman's eyes that most impress - an earlier icy exchange between Coulter and the Master of Jordan College takes place entirely between their gazes and it's not hard to imagine Kidman ordering children to their deaths. In later scenes, she indeed dismisses such deaths with a wave of her hand.
Ian McKellen’s voice-over for Iorek Byrnison has already come under some criticism. The veteran actor replaced the original Iorek, Nonso Anozie, very late in the film’s production. Chris Weitz vocally disagreed with the decision – taken by the studio – and early previews of McKellen’s Iorek-voice have not met with acclaim. We only ever heard one line from Anozie as Iorek, but in the film McKellen does manage to convince as Iorek – a youngish, powerful bear. McKellen’s voice has been altered substantially in post-production and it does him a world of wonder. The actor still comes across sometimes as too theatrical in his delivery, but after a period of obvious recognition, the viewer should find that McKellen’s voice begins to inhabit Iorek and the distraction of such a familiar actor’s voice coming from the bear diminishes. McKellen of course has a powerful voice and the extra bass afforded to him in post-production ensures Iorek remains a formidable presence on screen.
The film executes the small things (described here) exceedingly well, but unfortunately it falters when it comes to maintaining a coherent whole. Scenes are not given enough time to breath – there is not enough quiet time amidst the boisterous goings-on. Apart from the opening section at Oxford, with a more languorous pace, the plot is driven remorselessly forward and there are several occasions where it is pushed on by characters knowing (or guessing) things extremely quickly. The rapidity of the film is best exemplified by what happens after the bear fight. Iorek defeats Ragnar, declares himself king, then turns to Lyra and says "and now I will take you to Bolvangar.” And then they’re off.
Somewhat ironically, for those complaining about Sir Tom Stoppard’s firing as screenwriter, Weitz’s excellent script in fact proves better than his own directorial talents. Individual scenes are very good, but the film rushes far too much and certain threads are left hanging. Dust, after its big talk-up at the beginning and Lyra’s conversations with Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter, mostly vanishes from the story. To be fair, this also happens in the book to a certain extent, but a more coherent approach would have much more satisfying. For the viewer who hasn’t read the books, too often they will be simply lost as to what exactly every character in the film is so worried about. Whilst having a fan of the books - Chris Weitz - in charge is undoubtedly great, he perhaps strays too often into hitting a bewildered audience with lots of (for them) new facts at once.
The movie’s Magisterium, alas, is a cartoon villain, with no indication of a driving belief philosophy behind its domination of Brytain (and Europe). The removal of their religious motivations makes the institution incredibly bland, a mere band of thugs with a domineering power for no apparent reason. It's telling that the narration at the start of the fil Derek Jacobi and Simon McBurney turn in rather chilling performances, as expected from such veteran actors. McBurney is particular good as Fra Pavel, the slimey agent of the Magisterium who, in a change from the book where the Master tried it, attempts to poison Lord Asriel. His and Asriel’s exchanges in the Retiring Room scene afterwards are a thrill to watch and hint at the grander affairs that the film should have more of.
Much disdain has already been poured on the movie designers’ strange decision to cast ‘anbaric power’ – in the books merely another name for electricity – as an all-singing all-dancing technological marvel that makes Lyra’s world more science-fiction than Victorian steampunk. Yet.. they work, just. The intrusion of the throbbing golden sky ferry upon Jordan College aptly shows the Magisterium’s power whilst the clinical setting of Bolvangar benefits visually from harsh electric lights and office-block like features. Other aspects are less convincing – Mrs Coulter has photographs that move, a lá Harry Potter, and they and other artefacts tip too heavily into the magic spectrum – they do not feel very believable. On the whole though, the book’s Victorian steampunk world has been seen on film quite often and it is a nice change to have something different for once.
Alexandre Desplat’s soundtrack is really very good. Themes for the Gyptians and Dust make their appearance in the appropriate places, with the Dust theme in particular hinting at grander, more mysterious things. It’s a shame those things weren’t expressed on film. We’ll have a full review of the soundtrack in due course.
The Golden Compass has what it takes to be a success. It’s not Lord of the Rings, but it’s not Eragon either. Fans of the books will love the visualisation of many of the books scenes - especially at Oxford - but the feel of the book is still not entirely quite there. There's no real grand sense of adventure with such little time to stop and gaze. The scene which was present in the storyboards, where Lyra and Pan see falling stars whilst on the deck of the Nooderlicht at night would have been welcome. The segment where Lyra rides Iorek through the tundra - the very shot which convinced New Line to commisssion the film - seemed to have been cut short. Too much of is simply events coming one after another and the pity is that just another few calmer scenes could have made the movie so much better. As it is, the film comes in under two hours anyway, so it's hard to see what the rush was. It’s difficult to talk too much about Weitz’s role in all of this as it’s clear he’s been subject to such interference by New Line. The decision to excise the last three chapters will not have been one he made readily and New Line executive Bob Shaye is a notorious last-minute meddler with films after test screenings.
The last three chapters being removed seriously hurts the structure of the film - there's little real intrigue in a story where children are kidnapped and then rescued - especially with such ease, for the witches come to the Gyptian's aid for no given reason and the Gyptians are somehow able to rush a rifle regiment across open snow. As it is, the film simply ends with Lyra and Roger in Lee's balloons, heading towards the north to find Lord Asriel. The moral ambiguity of Roger's death at Lord Asriel's hands and the spectular tearing into a new world could have elevated the film just another step up, into 'great' rather than merely 'good'.
- Will, webmaster