Fairy Tale A True Story Director: Charles Sturridge Starring: Florence Hoath, Elizabeth Earl, Harvey Keitel, Peter O'Toole, Phoebe Nicholls, Paul McGann Approx Running Time: 99 min Rated PG
Fairy Tale claims to be based in truth, from the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. However,the title and the special effects might lead you to believe this is a children's fantasy. Unfortunately, this inspired attempt at a sweet story fails on both accounts. It's subject matter and dry storytelling are much to advanced for children, and is too dry for adults.
The film focuses on a pair of little girls, cousins who roam the meadows looking for fairies. What sets them apart is from the adults in the film is that they believe in the existence of these little people, not only because they are girls at play, but because they have actually seen them. The adults don't develop faith until the girls take two photographs of fairies, at which point a controversy arises, do they exist, or was this an act of trickery? The little girls and the fairies should be the focus of this film, but too much screen-time is devoted to Harry Houdini (Harvey Keitel) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Peter O'Toole). Because of the claimed truthfulness of the story, Doyle and Houdini are important to the story, but that doesn't mean they work. This film would have been much more entertaining both for children and for adults if they had taken the Doyle storyline, and applied more of a fantastic twist. The true disappointment for me was that the fairies only appear onscreen briefly, and we never get to meet any of them. They look like wonderful characters, but none are ever explored, we don't know their names, we don't even get to hear them talk.
There are some good aspects of the film, however. Though much of the photography is standard and not terribly challenging, it manages to capture some beautiful scenery quite well. There are also some interesting looks at the early days of photography, showing us cameras from the early 20th century, and glass plate exposures. The little girls are quite good, especially Frances (Elizabeth Earl). She has a cute, smart and almost sassy attitude that translates quite well for her character. Her energy is always high and she has some of the more enjoyable dialogue.
Unfortunately, type-casting does have its place in filmmaking, and even the most versatile of typecast actors have trouble now and again. Physcially, there couldn't be a better match for Harry Houdini than Harvey Keitel, but when I watched him in this, I couldn't stop images of the pimp from Taxi Driver, or "The Wolf" from Pulp Fiction from flooding my head. Aside from the fact that Houdini doesn't make much of an impact as a character in this film, Keitel adds to the distraction.
Fairy Tale A True Story could have done a lot more. Had it decided to take a turn into more fantasy, less realism, this could have been a real success. But the only time the children in the audience seemed excited, and asked questions of their parents as children so often do at the movies, was when the faires were onscreen. It seemed a shame that they were only able to enjoy the film for those fleeting moments.*
*Coincidentally, the two girls grew up to become old women, and confessed that the photographs were indeed fakes. So why couldn't this film have gone deeper into fantasy than it did if there was no truth to it.....?
Two out of four stars Copyright (C) Nicholas Amado 1997
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