REVIEW: Coraline (2009)

Coraline

Rated: PG

Runtime: 100 minutes

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher

My rating: Four stars

Your Rating (Click stars to rate):

Coraline is as good as child thrillers get. It's engaging, suspenseful and has a great story kids and adults can simultaneously enjoy.

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning), aptly named because she's the most colorful character in her family, just moved into the Pink Palace Apartments. The complex is barely pink and certainly not a palace. Her parents are hard-working writers who don't have time for her and constantly say things like, “I'll do this if you leave me alone.” When she ventures outside, she meets neighbor Wybie (Robert Bailey, Jr.). He gives her a voodoo-like doll that looks just like her as a gift.

The doll is creepy, and is able to move when no one is looking. The day she gets the doll, it leads her to a secret door behind some furniture. During the day, the door opens to a wall of bricks. At night, Coraline is led by hopping mice to the door, which now opens to a portal similar to that in Being John Malkovich. The portal leads to a parallel universe where all the same people exist, except they're more colorful, livelier and have buttons for eyes. Coraline is able to stay through the night, but each morning she wakes up back in her real-world bed.

She immediately falls in love with the new place, despite her alternate parents having button-eyes. She has fun and plays and enjoys it all, until she is propositioned to sew buttons on her eyes. If she does, she can stay forever. If she doesn't, well, her nice, fun “other mother” won't be very accommodating.

Coraline transforms from a disgruntled child to unlikely, but necessary heroine as she tries to regain her normal life. She learns that her other mother made the doll and the doll's eyes are able to spy on her. It's a trap for Caroline, which the other mother uses to lure her into the parallel universe to stay. The other mother has done it all before, kidnapping kids to keep for eternity.

Caroline learns of three other children who did sew buttons on their eyes, and were then killed by the other mother. They're now ghosts trapped behind a wall. Caroline needs to find their real eyes to free them. All this needs to be done before a button-shadow covers the moon. It's a standard countdown-to-Armageddon-like device necessary for thrillers.

A movie like this needs to do two things: (1) entertain and keep children fixed on the screen for 90-plus minutes and (2) make it watchable for the adults. After all, it is the adults paying. Number two wasn't necessary 10 years ago, but now it's a must or films like Coraline. If it doesn't entertain the adults, it will make all its money opening weekend and not another dime. This effectively does both.

Kids will want to see this movie multiple times, as they do most animated films. Parents will be able to watch Coraline at least twice before getting tired of it, making return trips probable.

People that actively searched for this review instead of just stumbling upon it want to know one thing: Should I bring my kid(s) to this film? Yes, is the simple answer.

Coraline is at times scary, weird and creepy, even for adults. A very young child probably would be too scared at some scenes. If your kids have seen, and like, The Nightmare Before Christmas, then they will like this.

It's not a musical, but a stop-animation film done by the same director (Henry Selick). It's beautifully animated and shows great strides from when The Nightmare Before Christmas was made. It was shot in 3-D, and you can tell some of the blatant 3-D tricks put in the film for no reason. (Like a needle poking directly at the camera in the opening sequence... oooooo I think it might stab me!)

Your kid will love this movie. It's a preposterous story, but it's basic message is to love your parents, even if they can be jerks sometimes, and be careful what you wish for. You will like it, and it might even be a movie entertaining enough to attend with a friend, although I'd wait until at least the end of week two in theaters to make sure the majority of kids get their fix. Four stars.

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Where it's playing?

St. Lawrence County: Playing! Click here for current listings.

Jefferson County: Not currently playing. Click here for current listings.

The Screening Room, Kingston, ON: Not currently playing. Click here for current listings.

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Comments? E-mail me.