Inkheart

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Inkheart's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Inkheart completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 5 April 2009.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Inkheart contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Mortimer “Mo” Flochart (Brendan Fraser) is a “silver tongue”, someone who can bring a story to life simply by reading the words. He is unaware of his gift until the night his wife disappears, sucked into the pages of Inkheart at the same time as numerous villains are sucked out. Mo will spend the next decade travelling the globe, searching for a copy of the very rare book with the hopes of reading his wife out again, all the while trying to keep one step ahead of the fictional characters who are hunting for him and his daughter Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett).
At long last, in a small village in the Alps Mo discovers an old bookshop and in the dusty back rooms on a long forgotten shelf he finds what he has been searching for. At that very moment Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) who had been read out of the story when Mo’s wife disappeared, finds him. When Mo refuses to help him by reading him back into the pages of the book Dustfinger enlists the help of Capricorn (Andy Serkis), an evil, callous man who thinks little of life and will do anything to get what he wants. Together these fictional forces track Meggie and Mo to the home of Meggie’s great aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren) who lives on a private estate in Italy.

The family is ambushed and taken hostage to the secluded castle fortress high in the mountains where Capricorn has his army of hardened criminals. They are imprisoned there until Dustfinger realizes that Capricorn will not help him and that Resa (Sienna Guillory), the beautiful, mute kitchen maid, is in fact Mo’s wife.

Dustfinger helps Mo and his family escape but leaves Resa behind as his personal insurance, telling Mo nothing of her existence until after they have escaped and have found another copy of the book. Mo immediately heads back to the mountain fortress in a bid to rescue Resa but his plan goes awry when Capricorn kidnaps Meggie.

Ultimately it is up to Meggie to save them all from certain death and to send the storybook characters back to where they belong.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

The supernatural; Separation from a parent

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• Mo pushes Dustfinger into a wall in order to escape from him.
• One of the henchmen puts a knife to Mo’s throat. He also slices him three times across the arm.
• The same men knock Mo unconscious while Meggie watches and then kidnap the family at gunpoint.
• Capricorn forces Mo to read by threatening Meggie.
• The boy who falls out of the Story of “Arabian Nights” is told that he will be fed to a crocodile. That doesn’t happen.
• There is frequent fighting in the film, especially when Capricorn’s men are involved. Handguns, rifles, machine guns, spears, knives and swords are all used to threaten, wound, harm or kill at various points throughout the film.
• Dustfinger's ferret grabs a thug's lucky charm and he enters the crypt where Dustfinger is being held prisoner in order to get it back. Dustfinger curses him and Meggie uses a human bone to whack the thug over the head.
• Meggie is forced to read a passage from Inkheart that will transfer a smoky monster with fiery eyes and mouth into the world, unleashing untold pain and terror. The swirling monster then comes towards the cage in which Resa is locked, looking as though he is ready to devour her.
• Dustfinger and another man knock out two of Capricorn’s thugs. They then grab containers of petrol, douse the castle’s walls and furnishings and set the place alight.
• Mo and Capricorn engage in a fight with much grabbing, punching and throwing. Elinor rides into the scene on a white unicorn having set all of the hostages free. The unusual band of centaurs and flying monkeys help attack Capricorn’s men.
• Meggie reads the destruction of Capricorn and watches as her words are fulfilled and he turns to ash, his dust blowing away with the wind.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, including the following:

• The Shadow is an evil dark apparition that blocks out the sun and is ready to devour everyone, including Meggie’s mother. He is made of black smoke and is truly fearsome looking. He is accompanied by loud, suspenseful and intense music.
• Many of the evil henchmen in the film look very frightening and have words tattooed across their faces.
• Meggie is kidnapped twice and at one point is in tears when she sees her mother as a prisoner and Capricorn and his men threaten to kill her mother if she will not read. Meggie is then dragged away from her mother while they both scream for each other.
• Before Meggie is abducted Dustfinger is watching the house from the shadows. He appears to be both sinister and menacing and the image is very creepy.
• Before Meggie leans that she too is a silver tongue she can hear voices whispering through the darkness. The scenes are dark and suspenseful and she is frightened as tries to understand where the raspy, insistent whispers are coming from.
• Capricorn’s men attack and cut Mo in front of Meggie, knocking him unconscious.
• Mo reads about a tornado from the Wizard of Oz, and the castle and its environs are caught up in the storm. They must dodge flying debris and they narrowly miss Dorothy’s house which falls right in front of their speeding truck.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Some of the above mentioned violent and disturbing scenes may also scare children in this age group.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film,

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• An old, witch-like hag is asleep wearing an 18th century-style dress. A ferret must collect a key which she has tucked into her bosom. There is a close-up of her cleavage.
• While Mo reads “The Arabian Nights” there are some partially transparent belly-dancers, with exposed midriffs, dancing in the background.
• There are water nymphs in one story and we briefly see three women in wet, clingy clothing.
  

Use of substances

None of concern

Coarse language

There is mild coarse language in this movie, including:

• the occasional use of the word “damn” and some name-calling such as “jack-ass” “stupid” and “idiot”.

The movie's message

Inkheart is a fantasy adventure containing frequent action and some beautiful scenery. While this is not a film for younger children, many children will probably want to see it.

The main messages from this movie are that nothing is impossible and that everyone writes their own destiny.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• honour
• truthfulness
• believing in yourself and in your own abilities
  

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• the disappearance of a parent
• using violence to get what you want
• the power of the written word
• deceitfulness and dishonesty