The Nutcracker And The Four Realms Cert: PG, 1hr 39mins
For a Disney film, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms seems to have flown into our cinemas slightly under the radar and certainly without the brouhaha we’d normally associate with what, to all intents and purposes, looks like the media giant’s big pre-Christmas release. Why could that be?
Could it, perhaps, reflect a lack of confidence in a film based on a classical ballet rather than a familiar fairy tale? Or the always slightly worrying fact that it has two directors – Lasse Hallström, of Chocolat and Cider House Rules fame, who did the main filming, and Joe Johnston, best known for Captain America: The First Avenger, who came in to supervise what sounds like an extensive period of reshooting?
And then Morgan Freeman lurches into shot as the inventor and toymaker Drosselmeyer and the penny, rightly or wrongly, drops. After all, it’s barely six months – long after filming had been completed – since 81-year-old Freeman was accused of sexual misconduct by eight women.
Keira Knightley is an absolute hoot as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Particularly at times of stress when given to exclaim: ‘Oh, poo!’ Above: Knightley and Mackenzie Foy as Clara
He subsequently apologised but such accusations are the last thing Disney, a company that prides itself on putting children and families first, would want to be associated with.
Doubly so, for a film that places a feisty young female lead centre-stage and features two of Hollywood’s more formidable females, Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren, in supporting roles. Suddenly, the modest marketing push and Freeman’s even more modest screen time begin to make sense.
Which is all a bit of a shame because this live-action production has much to commend it. Nineteenth-century Yuletide London is brought magically to life (of course it’s snowing; it’s Christmas in a Disney film), the young American actress Mackenzie Foy makes a splendid Clara, and Knightley is an absolute hoot as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Particularly at times of stress when given to exclaim: ‘Oh, poo!’
Have fun spotting Richard E Grant, Jack Whitehall and Omid Djalili in cameo roles, and look out for Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger, who is the evil regent of the Fourth Realm
Yes, there are moments as Clara journeys first to Godfather Drosselmeyer’s lavish Christmas Eve party and then, more magically, to the Narnia-like Kingdom of the Four Realms, when it’s easy to think this is all getting a bit C S Lewis and Lewis Carroll-like.
But do your literary history homework (or read the end credits, like me) and remember that both the ballet and the film are loosely adapted from a short story, The Nutcracker And The Mouse King, written way back in 1816. Two centuries on and mice, quite rightly, have a key role to play once again. You can tell it’s a Disney film, can’t you?
Some of the modern gender-role stuff doesn’t bear close examination, as Clara, by now accompanied by her own Nutcracker soldier (Jayden Fowora-Knight), makes her way to the fairytale castle where three of the regents of the four kingdoms – Sweets, Snowflakes and Flowers – make her welcome.
It’s lovely that Clara is the sort of girl who can quote Newton’s Third Law of Motion and is a whizz at all things clockwork, but it’s a slight shame that the thing that really brings a smile to her face is a magical princess makeover, complete with big hair and fabulous frock.
Still, I can see a lot of mothers warming to the more practical Nutcracker soldier outfit that soon follows – all winter boots, swirling red skirt and tight military-style jacket.
Have fun spotting Richard E Grant, Jack Whitehall and Omid Djalili in cameo roles, marvel at the brilliance of Misty Copeland in the film’s gorgeous ballet sequence and look out for Mirren as Mother Ginger, who is the evil regent of the no-longer-mentioned Fourth Realm.
Unless, of course, all is not as it seems…
SECOND SCREEN
Widows (15)
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Juliet, Naked (15)
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Slaughterhouse Rulez (15)
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Mirai (PG)
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Peterloo (12A)
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Nae Pasaran (12A)
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Steve McQueen is best known for the art-house offerings Hunger, Shame and 12 Years A Slave. Yet here he is suddenly making a crime thriller based on a TV series written by Lynda La Plante in the Eighties.
And very good the new Widows is too, with the story relocated to Chicago and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn brought in to help with the screenplay.
But the core of the plot is unchanged: a gang of career criminals burn to death in their getaway van when a job goes horribly wrong and, faced with ruin, their hitherto law-abiding widows turn to crime themselves, pinning their hopes on pulling off the last big job planned by Harry (Liam Neeson) before his death.
Some of the plotting is a little clunky but the acting is wonderful, with Viola Davis on sparkling form as Harry’s resourceful widow, Veronica.
Not so much a romcom as a bittersweet romance with funny bits, Juliet, Naked is a delicious adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel about two thirtysomethings struggling to make coupledom work. He (Chris O’Dowd) is Duncan, a college lecturer nerdishly obsessed with missing musician Tucker Crowe. She is Annie (Rose Byrne), Duncan’s increasingly dissatisfied girlfriend, who secretly begins a You’ve Got Mail-style online relationship with Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who’s not nearly as mysterious – or missing – as people think.
With fracking back in the news, the timing couldn’t be better for Slaughterhouse Rulez, a truly extraordinary comedy that combines elements of St Trinian’s, If… and er… Creature From The Black Lagoon. It takes a while to find its stride as fracking begins in the grounds of the frightfully posh Slaughterhouse School but is very funny – and spectacularly gory – once it does.
Mirai is a lovely Japanese animation about sibling rivalry, parenting and magically-passed-on wisdom, while Peterloo is an unwatchable Mike Leigh film about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819
Mirai is a lovely Japanese animation about sibling rivalry, parenting and magically-passed-on wisdom, while Peterloo is an unwatchable Mike Leigh film about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 that’s burdened with a surfeit of speeches and some terrible acting.
If it’s working-class heroes you’re after, you’re better off with Nae Pasaran, an unexpectedly moving documentary about the Scottish factory workers who, in 1974, refused to work on Rolls-Royce aircraft engines because they had been involved in the bloody coup that brought General Pinochet to power in Chile. It’s crying out for a Made In Dagenham-style remake but, until then, this will do very well indeed.