'Inkheart' review

Brendan Fraser (Credit: Murray Close/Warner Bros.)

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Mo (Brendan Fraser) is a “Silvertongue,” a person blessed with the ability to bring characters from books to life by reading out loud. Nearly a decade after this unusual skill causes the disappearance of his wife, Resa, Mo and his daughter (Eliza Bennett) search for Resa while trying to send Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) back to the printed page where he belongs. Co-starring a feisty Helen Mirren as Mo’s reclusive aunt, Andy Serkis as the villainous Capricorn and Jim Broadbent as an author who longs to hop into his own work.

The buzz: It's hard not to get a little agitated by movies this familiar, considering the similarity to the recent "Bedtime Stories" and the overall, overused family film concept of, "And then ... comes to life." “Inkheart” is based on the 2004 book by Cornelia Funke, who has obviously seen “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (or, if not, then “Last Action Hero”).

The verdict: “Inkheart” has no laughs, no thrills and no opportunity to get lost in the adventure. (The crocodile from “Peter Pan” makes a cameo and doesn’t eat anyone!) Even “Jumanji” didn’t plod so basically through the motions, with Fraser (“The Mummy: Tomb of the Too Many Sequels”) fading into the background and proving again that he needs to bolt from this genre. There’s nothing terrible or offensive about “Inkheart,” but until a hero decides to read letters from Penthouse Forum, let’s can it with the “things coming alive” stuff.

Did you know? Some characters’ emergence from the books is corrupted so that they appear in the real world with writing all over their faces. Isn’t it possible that they didn’t leap off a page and simply passed out at a frat party?

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