NORTH
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1994 Ben Hoffman
This could have been an enjoyable movie. Rob Reiner, who has given us one excellent film after another, really blew it on this one. Even the great cast were not utilized to their fullest, most being on the screen for a few minutes at a time. Was he just snowing us with big names?
North (Elijah Wood) is eleven years old. His dad and mom (Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus) are totally oblivious to him; at the dinner table he can't get a word in. And that is sad because everyone else loves the kid. He is tops in school grades, best hitter and pitcher on his baseball team and even does a great Tevye in his school's "Fiddler On The Roof" play. Every parent holds him up as an example to their kids: "Would North do that?"
Every kid has a place where he likes to be by himself and think about his life. North's is a chair in a department store in a mall. Passersby would think he was just a young boy waiting while his parents are shopping. But along comes someone dressed as a bunny. (Bruce Willis ... who also does the narrating). The bunny works at the store and is on a break.
The bunny hears out North's sad story and gives him some options. North brings his parents to court where a judge (Alan Arkin) rules in his favor, allowing him to seek out some parents he would prefer to his own. The courtroom scene with the crazy judge is funny.
The stipulation is: find parents you want by Labor Day or you will be sent to an orphanage. North sets out to various places around the world looking for parents with whom he would be happy.
Where did the movie go wrong? In a couple of places. The "adventures" become repetitious and the 88-minute film drags. But the worst and most incredible part, given Reiner's history, the sub-plot involves someone trying to murder North, actually firing at him. What a poor plot for a movie for children!
Directed by Rob Reiner.
1.5 bytes 4 Bytes = Absolutely must see. 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
ben.hoffman@bcsbbs.com
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews