Review: The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
In The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Keira Knightley is a delectable combination of Marilyn Monroe, Betty Boop, and Gwen Stefani as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Decked out in costume designer Jenny Beavan's gorgeously realised finery, her hair a sculpted cloud of cotton candy pink, Knightley brings a mischievous spirit and blithe campiness that's sorely missing in Disney's live-action take on E.T.A. Hoffman's classic 1816 short story, "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King."
In fact, there's quite a lot that's missing in this adaptation of the holiday perennial, namely a sense of magic and wonder, not to mention focus, cohesion, and a sense of purpose. It may seem curmudgeonly to collect such cavils, but The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is the kind of hollow confection that brings out one's inner Scrooge or Grinch. Instead it's a mishmash of The Chronicles of Narnia, A Wrinkle in Time, and Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland that at least outclasses those two films, and most others, with its sensational production design courtesy of Guy Hendrix Dyas. Dyas and Beavan's efforts are so impressive that they nearly detract from the film's trudging narrative.
The story centers on Clara (Mackenzie Foy), a serious-minded teenager still reeling from the death of her mother (Anna Madeley). She can't understand why her father (Matthew Macfadyen) "acts as if nothing has happened when everything has happened." During an elaborate Christmas ball, she forgoes dancing in favour of spending time with her godfather (Morgan Freeman) in his workshop, decoratively crammed with all his various mechanical inventions. She wonders if he might have a tool that would unlock the locked silver egg that her mother bequeathed to her. Turns out he doesn't, but he engineers a long, golden thread that transports her into a parallel world, which is comprised of four realms - the Land of Flowers, ruled by Hawthorne (Eugenio Derbez), the Land of Snowflakes, headed by Shiver (Richard E. Grant), the Sugar Plum Fairy's Land of Sweets, and the Land of Amusements, which is presided over by Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren). Clara discovers that her mother was the Queen of the Four Realms. The Sugar Plum Fairy, Hawthorne and Shiver have been in conflict with Mother Ginger and they believe that Clara has arrived to help restore peace and harmony to all of the realms.
One has to give a certain amount of credit to Disney for the admittedly now de rigeur colourblind casting as well as its persistent push of the female empowerment message. One could also give a smattering of applause for trying to turn the story into a meditation of grief as well as some tenuous allegory of war. Yet sometimes one wishes Disney would leave things well enough alone, and would simply celebrate the very elements that made the tale so beloved by audiences for centuries. We get an all-too-brief taste of the work's charm and fantasy in the ballet sequence featuring Misty Copeland and Sergei Polunin but, alas, this exquisite interlude is lost amidst the fantastical smorgasbord of nothingness that is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
Directed by: Lasse Hallström, Joe Johnston
Written by: Ashleigh Powell; based on the short story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E.T.A. Hoffman and suggested by the Nutcracker Ballet by Marius Petipa
Starring: Mackenzie Foy, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Misty Copeland, Eugenio Derbez, Richard E. Grant, Matthew Macfadyen, Lil Buck, Anna Madeley, Jack Whitehall, Sergei Polunin, Miranda Hart, Ellie Bamber, Tom Sweet
