The film also stars Jason Bateman.Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman) is the awkward and insecure manager of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, the strangest, most fantastic, most wonderful toy store in the world. But when Mr. Magorium, the 243 year-old eccentric who owns the store (Dustin Hoffman), bequeaths the store to her, a dark and ominous change begins to take over the once remarkable Emporium.
The best sequence, for me, was the one where the kid and Bateman's character communicate via hand-written notes between a pane of glass to Cat Stevens' "Don’t Be Shy." It instantly made me wonder if Helm's a Hal Ashby fan and sure enough later on a company is named "Ashby."Antoine Doinel wrote:Saw this tonight and thought it was a charming enough fantasy. It offers nothing new in terms of the story (it's all about "believing in yourself"), but the script itself is pretty good. Hoffman is given plenty of opportunity to chew the scenery with enough puns to make Groucho proud. And while, jesus the mexican boi makes a good point about films of this kind going terribly overbudget and becoming more about the special effects than not, here they are tastefully and conservatively applied. Some of the best sequences don't really involve many special effects at all.
Yeah, I loved that bit too. I enjoyed the film because it had a lot of great moments like that, that never veered into sentimentality or preciousness. The tone of the film, more often than not, was just right.Fletch F. Fletch wrote:The best sequence, for me, was the one where the kid and Bateman's character communicate via hand-written notes between a pane of glass to Cat Stevens' "Don’t Be Shy."Antoine Doinel wrote:Saw this tonight and thought it was a charming enough fantasy. It offers nothing new in terms of the story (it's all about "believing in yourself"), but the script itself is pretty good. Hoffman is given plenty of opportunity to chew the scenery with enough puns to make Groucho proud. And while, jesus the mexican boi makes a good point about films of this kind going terribly overbudget and becoming more about the special effects than not, here they are tastefully and conservatively applied. Some of the best sequences don't really involve many special effects at all.
Exactly. And that's what ruins so many films like this -- they end up being way too cutesy for their own good but this one hit all the right notes.Antoine Doinel wrote:I enjoyed the film because it had a lot of great moments like that, that never veered into sentimentality or preciousness. The tone of the film, more often than not, was just right.
