FAIRYTALE: A TRUE STORY 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
2 :-) :-) for the fairies in the backgarden
Cast: Florence Hoath, Elizabeth Earl, Paul McGann, Phoebe Nicholls, Peter O'Toole, Harvey Keitel Director: Charles Sturridge Producers: Wendy Finerman, Bruce Davey Screenplay: Ernie Contreras
If someone told me there were pixies picking daisies on my front lawn and sprites were salting salami in my back garden, I would smile and ask them whether the wicked witch of the west was cleaning my roof as ordered. What the heck, I'm in need of some recreational fantasy and if sprites and pixies want to do my gardening and cooking, then by all means let them.
In this magical tale of tiny people with wings, two little girls have claims to fairies frolicking in their neck of the woods. If you don't believe them, they can always whip out their Kodak shots of the momentous occasion. This is a true story in the sense that these events too place in the early twentieth century, and does not is any way imply that fairies are true. In the grand scheme of things we have two prominent historical figures like Houdidi (Harvey Keitel) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Peter O'Toole), involved and scrutinising the photos of the fairies. In may ways their presence makes this tale more real to life, as it shows us that lots of people were interested with the photos at the time, and more importantly - this is not just some washed up tale from an outhouse.
With the miracle of special effects, the fairies in question are brought to life more magically on screen than perhaps in life. However, their screen presence is sadly limited to the occasional midnight flickering appearance in the garden. This is unfortunate because the fairies are this movies highlight and I felt the audience wanted to see more fairies in action and less humans bumbling about. Harvey Keitel makes an interesting interpretation of Houdini and O'Toole is very suitable in the role of Conan Doyle. There is also a special cameo appearance of a fellow Australian towards the end of the movie.
So the question on everybody's mind is whether or not to believe the two girls? My response is - does it really matter? The fairies aren't here to invade the world, cause mass genocide or to destroy it with pollution and nuclear weapons. So let the girls believe in fairies if they want to and if you had a little imagination in your life, perhaps you should too.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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