The Golden Compass Review

The Sunday Herald review of The Golden Compass:

"PHILIP PULLMAN'S His Dark Materials trilogy is lauded as a work of fantasy right up there with The Chronicles Of Narnia and The Lord Of The Rings. Anticipation of The Golden Compass (a retitled adaptation of Northern Lights, the first book in the series), has been even more fervent than for this year's instalment of Harry Potter. More than simply wow the kids, could Pullman's anti-religious posturing give us all food for thought?

I suspect not, on both counts. While entertaining, the film does not reach the heights we might have hoped for. It's not, as some have suggested, that Pullman's themes have been watered down; rather, that his storytelling skills have not been matched.

Chris Weitz's adaptation is faithful to the book's proposition of a world at once familiar and oddly different, in which everyone has a personal daemon - essentially, an embodiment of their soul and cool litmus of their temperament - that takes the form of an animal constantly at their side; and he is faithful to the plot, centered on the spunky 12-year-old heroine, Lyra, whose unknown heritage and nose for trouble steer her towards an adventure involving kidnapped children, armour-clad polar bears and the eponymous, magical device that enables the girl to always discern the truth.

He also pays enough lip service to Pullman's critique of religious intolerance - this world's magisterium representing a church-dominated repressive state - for it to engender, at least, a wry smile. But what Weitz fails to do is draw us into the book's rich milieu. While Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, for example, brought Tolkien's Middle Earth vividly to life, luxuriating in it, Pullman's world is still left to our imaginations.

Those unfamiliar with the books will need to tune in fast, for this starts at a gallop, as the orphan Lyra's cosy Oxford existence - cared for by the scholars, gallivanting round the fields with her townie friends - is disrupted by the appearance of her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), an explorer with disturbing news from the arctic North.

The wilful Lyra immediately wants to know the connection between her uncle's discoveries and the abduction of dozens of children, including her best friend, by the mysterious Gobblers. No sooner has Asriel left again, than Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives, demanding custody of her. And, however malign Coulter's intentions for the girl, they do serve to propel her towards some answers.

The production designers do a fine job of creating a futuristic past: Oxford is a beautifully burnished version of itself; London is decorated with some new and flamboyantly oppressive architecture, the streets and air dominated by Heath Robinson-style contraptions - notably the fetching airship used by Mrs Coulter.

On the whole, though, their care is wasted by the hectic pace of the film. For the first hour Weitz won't dwell long enough to develop his characters, or their settings. We should be seeing more of the London social whirl (and the politics it contains) into which Coulter introduces her ward and more of the "gyptians", the water gypsies who come to Lyra's aid and transport her to the north. One usually wishes modern films were shorter; at just under two hours, this could have benefited enormously from an extra 30 minutes.


Nevertheless, the film does settle in the second half, when Lyra meets the balloonist Lee Scoresby (the charismatic Sam Elliott) and the drunken, self-pitying bear, Iorek Byrnison (the result, like the daemons, of some excellent special effects), who pledge to help her. The bear-on-bear battle to the death is the highlight of the film - though a tad brutal for youngsters.

Newcomer Dakota Blue Richards is an excellent find, capturing Lyra's unpolished, urchin quality, while demonstrating considerable, clear-eyed screen presence. Elsewhere, McKellen lends his voice, and great pathos to Iorek Byrnison; Jim Carter is a brooding gyptian leader and Eva Green the most sultry witch you could ever hope to meet.

Casting a dastardly glow centre-stage is Kidman. This is her most enjoyable performance for some time, perfectly capturing Coulter's slinky mixture of glamour and evil. Her summary of the process being performed on the kidnapped children - "it's just a little cut" - wills us towards another chapter."

I appreciate what this review says about the movie being too short and Ian McKellan's Iorek being right on target, but I was not impressed with Nicole Kidman's performance.