Film

In adapting the first book of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Weitz (About a Boy) faces a daunting challenge: Pullman’s universe is fiendishly complex and the novel is a thicket of imaginative details and thorny theology. Every human in this world has an animal spirit called a daemon, there are weird invisible “dust” particles that settle on adults but not children and a doorway has been opened to other universes.

A spunky young orphan (Richards) finds herself at the center of the battle between the powerful but corrupt church and a ragtag assortment of rebels, including armor-clad bears, beautiful witches and a cowboy balloonist (Elliott). She also tangles with a beautiful but evil woman (Kidman) who seems strangely focused on the girl’s fate. That’s a lot to pack in. Alas, with Weitz’s exposition-laden dialogue and uncertain direction, the film feels like a frantically paced highlights reel rather than a complete film.

The actors try to make an impression, but they get lost in the gorgeous production design. We could say more about the look of the mechanical insects and sleek Art Deco zeppelins than we could about most of the characters. But great production design and CGI talking bears are no substitute for well-paced storytelling and a sense of wonder, two things that are distinctly missing here.