THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA:
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (2005)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on January 27th, 2006
I have only a faint recollection of C.S. Lewis's book of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" but I do recall a sense of wonder and magic when I read it. Those qualities are missing in the short-shrifted adaptation called "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."
The film takes place in the English countryside outside of London during World War II where four siblings, Peter (William Moseley), Lucy (Georgie Henley), Susan (Anna Popplewell) and Edmund
Pevensie (Skandar Keynes), are living in a spacious manor of sorts with Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent). It is so spacious that it makes for an ideal game of hide and seek. While trying to hide,
Lucy, the youngest, enters a room where an inviting closet exists and nothing else. As she opens the closet door and gets past the fur coats, she enters the world of snow-covered Narnia. At first, Lucy notices a strange lamp post and then she finds a faun named Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) who invites her for tea at his gray cavernous home. He reveals that he is not supposed to be talking to a human since humans have never been seen in Narnia and if one is spotted, they are to be kidnapped and sent
to the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). The White Witch controls Narnia and had abolished Christmas for almost a century, condemning the place to endless winter (a timely idea considering the ozone layer nowadays).
Lucy goes back to the house and tells her siblings about her adventures but they don't believe her. One night, Edmund follows Lucy to the wardrobe closet and, presto, we are back in Narnia. Edmund encounters the White Witch who temps him with Turkish Delights in exchange for meeting the other humans. Before you know it, Peter and Susan soon join the fantasy land and we encounter talking beavers, a majestic lion named Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), fierce Minotaurs, angry wolves, more
fauns, cyclopses, centaurs, dwarves, etc. For effects, there are fiery spells, clashes with swords that emit lightning sparks and multiple arrows fired into the sky.
But something pervades through this live-action version of Lewis's much admired text - a feeling of emptiness. The movie has everything money can buy for a cherished fable (including a lavish battle sequence) but no sense of wonder or adventure. Excepting little Lucy, the other kids find nothing to be awed by. Once they are in Narnia, they are befuddled but not amazed. Wouldn't you be amazed if you saw a faun, a unicorn or an icy castle? When a beaver approaches them and talks to them, the kids react as if they've seen talking beavers before (maybe if you have had one had too many drinks at an English pub).
Then there is Peter, the eldest sibling, who can't bring himself to kill a salivating wolf (though he does succeed later on), and suddenly he is knighted! He actually leads the army to fight the vaster White Witch's army! The transition is nonexistent and the seams show through the truncated storyline - the movie compresses many events from the book but it has no sweep or grandeur. That is fine since it doesn't need to, but there is a disturbing lack of intimacy with the characters. They exist more in a void than in the real, fantastical world.
I wish I could admire "Chronicles of Narnia" on the level that the critics have, but the kids never convinced me that they were have an amazing adventure. The movie is strictly conservative
moviemaking - far lighter fare than "Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter." For some, this may be a blessing to have a family fantasy tale without blood and gore (and complete with a Christian
subtext unintended by C.S. Lewis). I am all for that but "Narnia" is more of a fairy tale and though it has the occasional confidence of one, it doesn't act like one.
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