Toy store manager and one-time piano prodigy--unhappy with the direction of her life and seemingly blocked artistically--is willed ownership of the store by her boss, the magically feckless Mr. Magorium, who knows the exact day and time he will pass on to another world. Writer-director Zach Helm has obviously seen a lot of movies and knows many card tricks, but he doesn't write characters--only occupations. There's the store owner (Dustin Hoffman, channeling Ed Wynn from "Babes in Toyland"), his beautiful-yet-unmarried assistant (Natalie Portman, all doe-eyed smiles and half-laughs), the humorless accountant who learns to loosen up (Jason Bateman, pulling a Jason Bateman), and the wizened youngster (Zach Mills) who helps out in the store and knows all its incredible secrets. Turns out the Emporium really is magical, with dolls that come to life and rooms that change completely with the turn of a knob. How far did Helm want to take this scenario before it became utter nonsense? The filmmaker is so concentrated on the visual accoutrements (and bowling his audience over with sparkly eye-candy) that he fails to develop the story. The movie opens on a sleepy bookmaker who lives down in the basement, but we rarely see him again. As for Hoffman, he doesn't really get into the personage of the happy-go-lucky toy specialist; worse, the irresponsible nature of Mr. Magorium--whose business office is awash with unpaid bills--lingers over the upbeat finale like a dark shadow. There are good moments, particularly in the budding friendship between Bateman and Mills, but if Helm was hoping for a romantic subplot between the man and the woman, it got lost somewhere in the shuffle. In fact, "Magorium" is all shuffle and show, and its heart is hard to find. ** from ****