Another engaging, beautiful holiday fantasy from Disney.
The Nutcracker & The Four Realms
Grade: B+
Directors: Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules), Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger)
Screenplay: Ashleigh Powell (The Hazel Wood), from story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King)
Cast: Mackenzie Foy (The Conjuring), Keira Knightley (Colette)
Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hr 39 min
By: John DeSando
“It's Christmas Eve. A time of mystery, expectations, who knows what might happen?” Drosselmeyer (Morgan Freeman)
The unusual and enjoyable does happen just in time for the holidays with a Disney family fantasy called The Nutcracker & The Four Realms. It comes bearing joy for all members of the family. It’s not sappy or intensely wicked; it just tells of young Clara (Mackenzie Foy) transported to a magical kingdom where some good and some evil are clashing and need her help.
Some small variations of Tchaikovsky by the estimable James Newton Howard and very little ballet don’t keep this adventure, influenced by Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, from being enjoyable and at times thrilling. Although the danger to the heroine never seems imminent enough, it’s pleasant to travel with her knowing, given the formula, that everything will turn out fine.
The intricacies of the story about becoming self-reliant and working as a team are not new to contemporary audiences. Nor is the separation of the teen from parents new either. However, directors Lasse Hallstrom and Joe Johnston are not strangers to humanistic and fabulous adventure stories, resulting in a tale both sentimental and intelligent.
Throw in impressive Disney sets, some reminiscent of the colorful Wizard of Oz fantastic scenes, and it becomes a truly imaginative experience whereby Clara, already a mechanical genius of sorts, gets to use that heretofore masculine ability to save the kingdom and dispel any notion the audience might have about sexist male dominance.
The Nutcracker & The Four Realms showcases seasoned actors who have proven themselves to be both physically old but young at heart: Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren. Then consider that lively Keira Knightley as Sugar Plum is both good and evil, a tribute to her accomplished acting and her unusual beauty. Foy has a future in movies if she can watch Knightley dance around her ambivalent character.
The theme of separated families, in this case kids weeping over a dead mother and a father obsessed with this loss, is never overplayed but rather confirms the need to move on while never forgetting the ones loved now. At either Thanksgiving or Christmas, these notions will make for happy times, even in the face of tragedy.
This is a fun and serious film, just right for the holidays.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
