INKHEART ***½

Iain Softley produced and directed this adventure/fantasy starring: Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, Sienna Guillory, Eliza Hope Bennett, and Rafi Gavron. Rated PG for fantasy adventure action, some scary moments and brief language. Running time is one hour and forty-six minutes. Filmed on locations in England and Italy.

A father (Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter (Bennett) share an extraordinary gift for bringing characters from books to life when they read aloud. But, when a character is brought to life from a book, a real person disappears into its pages, as the daughter's mother (Guillory) did years ago. Determined to rescue his wife, the father assembles a small group of friends and family--some from the real world (Mirren, Broadbent), some from the pages of books (Bettany, Gavron)--and embarks on a daring and perilous journey to set things right and save our world from an evil storybook tyrant (Serkis).

Occasionally, and rarely, a film gets it all right, resulting in a picture like this one. The story is intriguing and imaginative, the pacing is just right, the actors are great, the special effects are superb, the locations are eye catching, and there's even a sequel to the original book, INKSPELL, so perhaps there will be a film sequel also. The rating is accurate although I don't think you'd have any problems with any school aged child and in fact I think most children with be entranced by this film. Parents will find the film just as enjoyable. The photography and special effects are such that you will enjoy this most on a large theatre screen.