The Golden Compass: Performances and FX Salvage Freewheeling Epic!

Imagine a world, much like our but with some significant differences… a world where people’s souls were not contained within them, but beside them – in the form of animals, called daemons, that represented not just the type of person they were, but also their other side [men would have female daemons; women would have male daemons]. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy is set in such a world and this unique yin and yang is but one of many aspects of the novels that Chris Weitz’s film adaptation does well.

Lyra Belaqua [Dakota Blue Richards] is a tomboy with a mind of her own. When one of her Gyptian [think Gypsy] friends calls her “a lady,” her immediate response is “take that back!!” While Lyra lives in a room in the staff residence of a school of higher learning, she is constantly skipping classes and playing with what her caregivers would undoubtedly call the wrong sorts. Thus, it is that Lyra turns out to be the pivotal character in a coming war for the most precious thing on Earth – Free Will.

Although Pullman’s books use – very pointedly – the Catholic Church as the example of all things wrong with religion, the film’s use of The Magisterium is more than a little toned down, giving the impression that the villains of the piece are just bad people – at first. The Magisterium tells people who “aren’t able to decide for themselves” what “the right things to do” are.

In an interesting reversal of expectations, the witches that populate the books are on the side of Truth and Free Will. Indeed, it is the leader of the witches, Serafina Pekkala [Eva Green, recently of Casino Royale] who tells Lyra what will be at stake if The Magisterium succeeds in their evil plans. What plans are those? Nothing less than separating children from their daemons [to prevent something called “Dust” from accumulating in the world] and traveling to parallel universes to impose their will everywhere.

Kinda makes Darth Vader and his emperor look like pikers, doesn’t it?

Arrayed against the forces of The Magisterium are a number of interesting characters, including: Lord Asriel [Daniel Craig], Lyra’s uncle – whose daemon is a white snow tiger, Stelmaria [Kristin Thomas Scott]; Lee Scoresby [Sam Elliott], an aeronaut whose daemon is a long-eared hare named Hester [Kathy Bates]; John Faa [Jim Carter], leader of the Gyptians and his trusted counsellor, Farder Corem [Tom Courtenay], and Iorek Byrnison [voiced by Sir Ian McKellan], exiled prince of the Polar Ice Bears.

Among the most important representatives of The Magisterium, we have: Mrs. Coulter [Nicole Kidman], an imperious and silkily evil lady of wit, charm and intelligence; actual members of The Magisterium [Derek Jacobi, Christopher Lee, Edward De Souza]; arctic dwellers called the Samoyeds, and the scientific team that works to sever children from their daemons.

Over the course of the film’s two hours there are battles: of wills; between two royal Ice Bears; between Gyptians, Witches and Iorek and the Samoyeds… all in service of the coming war for Free Will – which we can safely say has begun by film’s end. There are contrasts, too – Lyra, for example, tells some pretty fine tales [lies] while looking for two kidnapped friends [see children severed from their daemons].

Lyra’s daemon, Pantalaimon [voiced by the nearly omnipresent Freddie Highmore] is not only her masculine side, he’s also her common sense. True, she ignores that aspect of him a lot of the time, but when their life hangs in the balance, she does pay attention.

Now, here’s the weird thing: despite being a hair under two hours in length, The Golden Compass feels both rushed and too long. Director Weitz’s screenplay may have pared things down a little bit too much. In music, the notes you don’t play are as important as the ones you do. The notes here are all one kind – action. The film’s frantic pacing leaves little time to catch our collective breath – and there is actually too little exposition and character development. On the other hand, the film works as well as it does because Weitz gets solid performances from all his players – and the effects [CG and practical] are exceptional.

In the end, while the film is fun and, occasionally, thought provoking, it is only about three –quarters of the film it could have been. If The Golden Compass earns enough at the box office for book two [The Amber Spyglass] to be made, we can only hope that Weitz [or whomever] stetches things out a little farther so that we actually get the ride that this film should have been.

Final Grade: B-