Movie Review: "Inkheart"

Rated: PG for fantasy adventure action, some scary moments, and brief language
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett, and Paul Bettany
Released: January 23, 2009 (theaters)

Synopsis
Mo (Brendan Fraser, George of the Jungle) is a book mender, and can restore damaged literature to like new condition.  He and his daughter, Meggie (Eliza Bennett), have jetted hundreds of miles to find a copy of a specific book. what Meggie doesn't know is that her mother, who seemingly went missing years ago, is trapped inside that book, thanks to Mo's powers as a Silvertongue; that is, a person whose mere reading of the written word causes the characters and situation to come off the page and into our world.  When an escaped villain from said book is bent on killing Mo and Meggie, and taking over the world, it's up to them to put a stop to the storybook nemesis' evil ways for good.
Based on the book by Cornelia Funke.

The Good
The special effects were outstanding; fantastical creations such as winged monkeys were brought to life very well.  The cast is largely British, which brings a bit of the usual charm from jolly old England.  All of the actors did quite well, especially Brendan Fraser and Eliza Bennett.  There wasn't any profanity that I heard, which is different than usual for "PG" fare.

The Bad
Some of the sequences were a bit scary; however, the biggest problem was just that this movie was hard to finish.  I'm not sure what it was about it, but, after watching it over the course of several days, and finishing it today, I didn't really feel a sense of satisfaction; it just proved lackluster.

Conclusion
I'm pretty sure I bought this on DVD at a garage sale; now, I just hope that I get some decent trade-in credit for it at MovieStop, because the movie itself proved to be a waste of time.  Even with the clean content and good production values, getting through it proved to be a chore.  I only hope the original novel was better than this film adaptation.

Score: 1.5/5