A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: The Chronicles of Narnia (1): The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Date Viewed: 12/17/05

Details:

Georgie Henley (Lucy)

Skandar Keynes (Edmund)

Anna Popplewell (Susan)

William Moseley (Peter)

Jim Broadbent (Professor Kirke)

Tilda Swinton (The White Witch)

Voice talent: Liam Neeson (Aslan)

Rupert Everett (Fox)

Ray Winstone (Mr. Beaver)

Director: Andrew Adamson

Score: +

The Review: From the sequence of children's novels by C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is where we first meet the Pevensie children (although their family name is never revealed in the first novel), and where we first experience Narnia, the hidden kingdom of fantasy accessible to wizards and children of all ages. Staged as a period piece, the children are sent out on their own from a Blitz-targeted London suburb to stay with a distant relative in the (safer) countryside. While entertaining themselves in the rambling and generally empty mansion, they stumble upon a door to a parallel universe.

Absolutely spectacular special effects: the centaurs are excellent. The multitude of bizarre creatures provide visual counterpoint to the often impressive score, giving rise to a mounting sense of menace.

The children are in general very good; in particular, the youngest daughter, Lucy (Henley), is excellent. Her sense of awe and wonder are a gift to behold. The older daughter Susan (Popplewell) is also quite good -- it's curious that the two boys are less interesting or less convincing.

We saw this in digital projection (DLP) format, and for once, I was disappointed. As I have mentioned in previous instances (Attack and Nemo), digital projection methods have seemed sufficiently novel that theatres kept their equipment in good maintenance and their images crisply in focus, enhancing the viewing experience substantially. This time however, it seems that the theatre (in San Francisco) had become blase, and the result was just as out-of-focus as any ordinary celluloid product. Caveat: know thy theatre.

When Narnia was being filmed, there was a small journalistic storm about what would eventually emerge from the studios. C.S. Lewis was an explicitly Christian author -- of philosophy, essays, commentary and novels -- and the religious overtones in both the Narnia Chronicles and his allegorical science fiction trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) are not at all subtle. One side of the controversy was that the result would be overtly, cloyingly Christian; the alternate worry was that the result would be overtly, annoyingly empty of allegory. The gripping hand was that a surprisingly careful balance was maintained in both screenplay and direction, so that viewing audiences of many persuasions can enjoy the fantasy at whatever remove or depth they seem fit.

Finally (in more than one sense), one of the problems of being an end-credits maven is stumbling on unintended, serendipitous ironies -- in this case, finding out that one of the centaurs was played by Charles Williams. The literary group that established itself at Oxford in the interregnum between the wars -- they named themselves the Inklings -- comprised Owen Barfield, Dorothy Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, and fantasist and author of All Hallow's Eve and The Greater Trumps, Charles Williams. None dare call it brain sludge.

(9-Apr-06)

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