THE GOLDEN COMPASS

Actors: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards
Director: Chris Weitz
Writer: Chris Weitz, Philip Pullman

“The Golden Compass” based on the first book of His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman is an extraordinary cinematic feat in realizing this astonishing world of demons and dust. The movie aspires to become a memorable The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter but falls short.

The movie depicts an inverted universe as we know and understand it. The story takes place in a strange parallel universe where witches are good, your souls is disparate from the body and takes the form of a beast called a daemon, animals talk and fight and the Magisterion (a Catholic church like organization) steals children for their own despicable reasons. Placed in this alternate universe, an orphan girl spends her days happily playing with local boys and hanging out at a nearby college. While she is there one day, she overhears a conspiracy against her uncle. She sets out to discover what is going on with a mysterious matter known as “dust” to rescue her kidnapped friend and find her uncle. What she discovers is a strange world of frightening possibilities and a plot that could pose a great threat to her world as well as our own.

Characters do not get enough time to develop. The movie seems rushed and there is a complete audience disconnect with the characters on-screen. Maybe, if the film was longer, lead characters could have been developed and the background characters could have made more sense and the movie could have an epic feel. Sadly enough, all this is missing and when the movie gets over, the general mood in the theatre is quite low, deprived of any energy.

The beastly attitude manifest in the movie and the conception of the soul as being separate from its corporeal vessel give the story atheist overtones that may not go too well with orthodox groups. Controversy apart, this epic is an honorable work of cinema and truly very impressive.

Despite various technical snags, actor performances are absolutely superb. Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot, Dakota Blue Richards and Ian McKellen are flawlessly perfect in their character portrayals. Sets and costumes also deserve a well-earned mention here.

In contemporary cinema, where all you get to see is fast action and monotonous, oft-repeated romances, “The Golden Compass”, a literature-based epic is cast in a different genre and is truly a class apart from the usual cinema.