'Coraline' Review

A Bit of Bottled Fantasy: Coraline Review

by M. R. Brown

You are Henry Selick, a master of stop-motion animation, a critically acclaimed director and a visionary in your artistic field. What could possibly leave you frustrated after nearly 15 years? It just may be that the majority of moviegoers not only think that Tim Burton is the sole creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas but that he directed it as well. Bringing us yet another entry into his full-length stop motion animation film repertoire, Selick unveils the eye orgasm known simply as Coraline.

The young blue haired Coraline (Dakota Fanning) finds herself moving from her home and friends in Michigan and into a new apartment in the Pink Palace house with her eco-enthusiast mother and father (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman)in Oregon. Wandering through the woods she encounters the loveable yet posture-challenged neighbor Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.) whom she shuns as little more than a stalker. Upstairs lives the eccentric vaudevillian character Mr. Bobinski (Ian McShane). Neglected by both parents hard at work on their computers, Coraline is left to her own devices and discovers a small door covered by wallpaper. Behind that door? Coraline is thrust into a doppelganger world where fairytale meets film noir, paternal love meets jealous lust and where beauty meets misery. A mirror world in which everyone has buttons sewn on for eyes seems like the perfect paradise at first for Coraline but she soon begins to find an underlying and twisted objective.

Writer Neil Gaiman finds his artistic match with director Henry Selick in their fantasy bastard child Coraline. Gaiman, the noteworthy graphic novel penman, crafts a story ripped from children’s nightmares while Selick deftly brings some of the lushest imagery ever captured on film to fruition. Selick’s eye far outshines Gaiman’s word with, apart from their other selves, static and flat characters. Not since Kung Fu Panda has there been a more wasted talent in cast.

Gaiman’s script, although haunting to an unsuspecting 5 year old, pulls little punches and is often times one of the worst things a fantasy movie can be: predictable. Although the 2002 graphic novel the film is based off won acclaim with both Hugo and Nebula awards, the transition from page to screen leaves a disconnected storyline and sluggish pace. The exciting moments will dig your fingers into the armrests but the rest of the film rests heavily on its visuals.

The film is essentially an arthouse blockbuster that dazzles in presentation but fizzles in dramatics. Without much competition in the post-Oscar movie theatre recession known as February, Coraline safely asserts itself as the must see movie, 3D or not.

Coraline is rated PG and is currently showing at the Regal Cinemas Westborough 12 and Regal Cinemas Solomon Pond Mall 15 in Marlborough.