FAIRYTALE: A TRUE STORY
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 8.0 Alternative Scale: ***1/2 out of ****
United Kingdom/USA, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 10/24/97 (wide) Running Length: 1:38 MPAA Classification: PG (Mild profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
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 Cinematography: Michael Coulter Music: Zbigniew Preisner U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Fact or fiction, FAIRYTALE: A TRUE STORY is a fine motion picture. Cast from the same mold that shaped A LITTLE PRINCESS and THE SECRET GARDEN, FAIRYTALE is one of those rare family films that has the potential to appeal equally to adults and their offspring. While the movie is likely to make smaller children fidget, those who are old enough to grasp the themes and issues addressed by the movie will find themselves enchanted by the story. And grown-ups will discover that there's enough depth in the material to arrest their attention.
The chief truth explored by FAIRYTALE is that the process by which a child becomes an adult destroys innocence and robs life of its magic. Paradoxically, the older one gets, the more he or she craves the wonders that only boys and girls can believe in. In FAIRYTALE, children are the ones with insight, who can never be fooled because "the expect nothing, and so see everything." Adults, on the other hand, "don't know how to believe." They have lost the capacity to accept what they cannot see. Rationality can be a harsh taskmaster. The film's very title exemplifies this -- children in the audience will have no trouble accepting FAIRYTALE as true. Adults, on the other hand, will immediately dismiss the "true story" part of the title and view this as a well-crafted work of fiction.
FAIRYTALE takes place in the English countryside around the end of World War I. Eight-year old Frances Griffiths (Elizabeth Earl) has come to live with the family of her 12-year old cousin, Elsie Wright (Florence Hoath), after her father has been declared missing in action. Almost immediately, Frances and Elsie find that they have a great deal in common, chief of which is a fascination with fairies -- the tiny sprits of the air that only children can see. In fact, by her own admission, Elsie knows more about fairies than anyone else alive. One day, while the girls are playing near a local stream, they experience their first sighting of one of the small creatures.
Soon, Elsie and Frances have procured Elsie's father's camera. Using it, they take two pictures of the fairies, and, when it has been confirmed that no photographic trickery has been used, the snapshots come to the attention of none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Peter O'Toole) and his friend, Harry Houdini (Harvey Keitel). Soon, these two luminaries make a trip to meet the girls, each with a different opinion of what they have seen. Houdini, a master of illusion himself, claims that the pictures are fakes. Conan Doyle, on the other hand, is willing to take the photos at face value. Meanwhile, Elsie's parents don't know what to think. As her mother says, "I'm not sure which frightens me more -- that the children are lying to us or that they're telling the truth."
FAIRYTALE is extraordinarily intelligent and insightful in its approach to the story, blending images of illusion and reality while playing the two off against one another. The film, which is presented from a child's point-of-view, also examines the mysteries of growing up. The manner in which this subject is approached will have many audience members thinking back to when they first realized they had crossed the invisible barrier separating childhood from adulthood.
The realm of children is a magical one, and director Charles Sturridge understands this. Elsie and Frances live in a place where fairies, angels, and other creatures are more than figments of the imagination. It's a terrain where reality is colored by wonder, and their photographs bridge the gap between their world and that of their parents. Each of the adults in the film reacts differently to the possibility that fairies might exist -- one is awestruck, many are skeptical, and a few are fascinated. But, while the children accept without question, their elders need explanations. FAIRYTALE also addresses the one area where faith is most necessary -- the great unknown of death.
As the two girls, actresses Florence Hoath and Elizabeth Earl are delightful, and both exhibit a natural talent for performing. Hoath plays Elsie with a quiet seriousness while Earl imbues Frances with a pixie-like wildness and exuberance. The adult actors, while not often in the foreground, are just as good. Paul McGann (the eighth DOCTOR WHO) and Phoebe Nicholls (PERSUASION) are believable as Elsie's confused parents. Harvey Keitel remains low-key and unthreatening in his portrayal of Houdini. And Peter O'Toole creates a strong, amiable version of the man who gave birth to Sherlock Holmes.
One of the lessons of the Bible is that a person who believes without demanding proof shows true faith. FAIRYTALE echoes and amplifies that message, adding that the purity of childhood is a necessary ingredient to the unquestioning acceptance of things that defy a rational explanation. This is a story without villains or melodramatic plot twists. It's a simple picture with two very likable, believable young protagonists and an uplifting, optimistic viewpoint. Few family films of this caliber reach the screen in any given year, and, to this point, nothing in 1997 has come close. We can only hope that the word will get out about FAIRYTALE, and it won't suffer a box office fate similar to that of A LITTLE PRINCESS. This film deserves much better, and that's the true story.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net
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"The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it..."
- Jean-Luc Godard
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