This week’s Hidden Flick was an unjustly under promoted slice of celluloid that came and went in 2006, although it had all the hallmarks of a family-friendly science fiction tale that could also scare the crap out of really small children. Hmmm…maybe that’s why it failed—while the 30- and 10-year olds were bouncing on their seats, raving about the flick, the 3-year old was sprawled on the floor, under his seat, and hiding from the 8-foot tall robot chasing two small boys around their house up on the screen.
Zathura worked because, like all of Favreau’s films, he deals with stories that are centered around real people that you would run into right after walking out of the theatre. He focuses on the emotional impact that triggers a response in a character, instead of attempting to create a fantastical world where special effects are the King, and the actors are merely there to move the story along, like human place cards in an updated form of silent filmmaking. George Lucas suffered from this malignant malady in his Star Wars prequels, and I think he still doesn’t get it. If we don’t care about the characters, we won’t really want to continue looking at all of the spectacular eye candy while you attempt to have two asexual characters portray a romantic relationship to explain the twin offspring of Luke and Leia Skywalker and the downfall of a Jedi Knight. (Although, that doesn’t really explain the artistic success of the Clone Wars animated films, which excel because they are fast-paced action stories without any extended character development scenes.)
Ahhh…but we are talking about a board game, two boys, a frozen sister, absent parents, and an astronaut lighting the family coach on fire, kicking the flaming furniture out into space, successfully distracting a squadron of attacking robots from destroying the house. The film is based on the work of Chris Van Allsburg, (Spielberg vet David Koepp wrote the screenplay), who also wrote Jumanji, among numerous other fine illustrated books. Allsburg seemed to have a thing about dangerous, gargantuan-sized creatures popping out of children’s games, terrorizing kids, ripping things apart, and tearing down the house—either that, or Allsburg really hated his mom’s flowery wallpaper back in the day.
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That’s about the size of this story, too—large, small, creepy (uhhh…weird alien sheep-like animals in the basement, next to the furnace, like the film took a wrong turn into Marilyn Manson’s house), hilarious (what’s not to like about a grown-up astronaut instructing children to light the kitchen on fire to repel an alien attack?), poignant (the film has a wonderful familial twist near the end—take that M. “I should’ve thought of that one” Night), and lest I forget in this brief list of things to admire about Zathura: Tim Robbins bookends the film as the…wait for it…absentee science fiction dad (didn’t any of these dorky fantasy writers ever have a stable household with two parents?) who gives new meaning to the old parental warning: “don’t burn the house down when I’m gone.”
The film also features Kristen Stewart who is one of those young thespians (not what you think, look it up, smartie) who is going to have a pretty long and twisted career (see her subtle turn as a love interest to the tragic lead character in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild). She isn’t in much of Zathura as she is…uh…frozen for much of the time (trust me, the Human Popsicle thing will make sense once you see it), but she has that uncanny ability to own the camera once it swings her way. Favreau knew that, and wisely played up her glare as a strength instead of choosing to focus on her slightly bitch-y dimension. But that’s what Favreau does…he finds the nuances which make each character something special to watch—and the two young boys who play the lead male actors in Zathura are real kids who are believable, funny, complex, smart, clever, and great to watch as they attempt to figure out how to put the various puzzle pieces back together in the film.
All of those attributes echo back to that great, short-lived program Dinner for Five, which helped show the film world that Favreau has a way to provoke good conversation with warm characters to produce a show that contains action without millions of effects. G’ahead…watch Iron Man, again, and tell me that isn’t a great film because of a sharp script and Robert Downey, Jr.’s formidable acting skills, as opposed to the fallen angel/dark and bitter villain that we have become accustomed to elsewhere. G’ahead…
