MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM
Toys And Joy For The Kid In All Of Us
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium"
By Omar P.L. Moore/November 18, 2007
Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Magorium and Natalie Portman as Molly Mahoney, in Zach
Helm's "Mr. Magoruim's Wonder Emporium", which opened two days ago in the U.S.
and Canada. (Photo: Fox Walden")
Where do you get such wonderful toys? "Mr. Magorium's
Wonder Emporium" strongly suggests that it is from the heart. The film,
written and directed by Zach Helm, a screenwriter making his directorial debut,
spends about an hour reveling in the joy, fun and delight of toys, and an
apparently magical toy store. (Why wasn't the title of the film "Mr.
Magorium's Magic Emporium"?) Dustin Hoffman is amusing and avuncular as
Mr. Magorium, whom he gives a slight lisp. He's not necessarily a Toys 'R'
Us kid, but he has not grown up as much as he has grown on through all the
trains, balls, planes and other toys which surround him. Natalie Portman
is Molly Mahoney, Emporium manager and a protege of Magorium's, a long-standing
(and suffering) piano player who aspires to play big concert halls and be
recognized for the immense talent she is and possesses. Like all
star-struck young ones, she is of the belief that Magorium will live forever --
after all, he's about 243 years old -- give or take a year -- who's counting?
Jason Bateman is the newly-hired accountant Henry Weston, aka Mutant, who keeps
monetary things so much in order that he hasn't even a second to play checkers
with one of the Emporium's habitual customers, 9-year-old Eric Applebaum
(newcomer Zach Mills), a wee shy lad who is yet to make a single friend.
The Emporium is his sanctuary.
And for an hour it is ours as well, as we hibernate within a colorful,
fun-filled and exciting world of innocence and joy. The stiff, and
ramrod-straight Mutant learns to become a kid again, the Ronald McDonald-like
Mr. Magorium (minus the red hair and clown make-up) achieves a beloved perch in
his long life, and Molly Mahoney, the warm-hearted soul who doesn't appear to
have a boyfriend or anyone to love in sight, loves the one person who has taught
her to believe. So with all of these things, you would think that Mr.
Helm, who also penned "Stranger Than Fiction" (starring Will Ferrell, Emma
Thompson and Queen Latifah) would make the film's conclusion and its third act
satisfying. Alas, he does not. The harried third act drifts after a
good series of chapter-like episodes, wandering as if an orphan searching for a
suitable family (or resolution, in the case of the movie.)
"Mr. Magorium" does well more than half of the time, with its bright, sunny and
colorful production design by Therese DePrez, its cinematography by Roman Osin,
and Mr. Hoffman's winning jewel of a performance, but when it comes time to
close the deal and seal what could have been a sweetheart of a movie or a candy
cane of a celluloid confection, Mr. Magorium drops its toys abruptly -- marbles
included -- and gets stubborn and stingy with its ending. A key character
is not given additional time to grow and thus what the individual possesses, or
harnesses, is a mere introduction. The audience is deprived of a dream
come true -- a dream which is ultimately deferred, something that makes the film
end very unexpectedly. All the fanfare and promise that the movie spends
so much time building simply vanishes like the pixie dust that the Emporium
probably has an abundance of.
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" is rated G by the Motion
Picture Association of America. The film's duration is one hour and 45
minutes.
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