First off, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a fund kids movie. Kids will delight in the visuals and imagination found in Mr. Magorium's magical toy store. Parents should be pleased that there's absolutely nothing offensive in the movie. It's actually a pleasant surprise to see a film stray away from bathroom gags ubiquitous to even the most innocent looking kids films these days.
The store in the film's title is a truly special place. Toys can come to life, books can magically be written, and there's even a room that when a dial is turned, it takes you to a different place. The store's owner, played by Dustin Hoffman in an apparent homage to Willy Wonka or Mel Blank (it's the voice), I'm not sure, is a goofy, magical, 242 year old man who's looking to pass the store onto its manager, Molly Mahoney, played by Natalie Portman, who feels she doesn't have the magic to keep the store going.
Also central to the story is Eric, a lonely boy who seems to get lost with his imagination inside the store and has trouble making friends. We also meet Henry, an accountant Mr. Magorium hires and says is a "counting mutant." Our central characters refer to him as mutant throughout the film.
The film serves up a number of old gags and puns for humor ("Have you seen Mr. Magorium." "Yeah, he's about this tall, gray hair..." you get the idea). While this celebrates the innocence of the film, it gets to be old hat after the second reel.
The characters have a number of conflicts. Mr. Magorium wants to pass the store on to Molly, but she feels she can't. She is also a struggling pianist unable to write her own piece of work. Eric has no social life outside of the store, much to his mom's concern as well as Molly's and Mr. Magorium's. Henry is so lost in his job that he's forgotten how to have fun.
All this is well and good and almost resolved until we to get to the end. Throughout the movie, Eric is telling the story as if it were a book and each chapter's name alludes to something that is going to happen. The final chapter's name is confounding when we get to the end. It's as if bits and pieces of the resolution were left on the cutting room floor. I think this may be a case of a children's movie that was cut short to allow for a shorter running time (just over 90 minutes).
The bottom line: This is a great imaginative ride the whole family can enjoy and the story's pretty good to boot. It just seems to fall apart all at once at the end.
The store in the film's title is a truly special place. Toys can come to life, books can magically be written, and there's even a room that when a dial is turned, it takes you to a different place. The store's owner, played by Dustin Hoffman in an apparent homage to Willy Wonka or Mel Blank (it's the voice), I'm not sure, is a goofy, magical, 242 year old man who's looking to pass the store onto its manager, Molly Mahoney, played by Natalie Portman, who feels she doesn't have the magic to keep the store going.
Also central to the story is Eric, a lonely boy who seems to get lost with his imagination inside the store and has trouble making friends. We also meet Henry, an accountant Mr. Magorium hires and says is a "counting mutant." Our central characters refer to him as mutant throughout the film.
The film serves up a number of old gags and puns for humor ("Have you seen Mr. Magorium." "Yeah, he's about this tall, gray hair..." you get the idea). While this celebrates the innocence of the film, it gets to be old hat after the second reel.
The characters have a number of conflicts. Mr. Magorium wants to pass the store on to Molly, but she feels she can't. She is also a struggling pianist unable to write her own piece of work. Eric has no social life outside of the store, much to his mom's concern as well as Molly's and Mr. Magorium's. Henry is so lost in his job that he's forgotten how to have fun.
All this is well and good and almost resolved until we to get to the end. Throughout the movie, Eric is telling the story as if it were a book and each chapter's name alludes to something that is going to happen. The final chapter's name is confounding when we get to the end. It's as if bits and pieces of the resolution were left on the cutting room floor. I think this may be a case of a children's movie that was cut short to allow for a shorter running time (just over 90 minutes).
The bottom line: This is a great imaginative ride the whole family can enjoy and the story's pretty good to boot. It just seems to fall apart all at once at the end.