The Golden Compass (2007)
Grade:A-
The fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books are plentiful, so it with great pleasure that I can declare the film adaptation of the first installment a great success. It’s not perfect, but it comes damn close.
The Golden Compass is trying valiently to be this year’s Narnia or Lord of the Rings or another Harry Potter, but part of the charm and interest of the story is that, while it is indeed magical, it is grounded in a reality much like our own. That is the core conceit of the film: parallel worlds exist that mirror our own, but they all differ in slight ways. Some magical substance – Dust – can allow us to travel between them or… some sort of mumbo jumbo that I’m sure will be explained in the sequel.
In the parallel world of Compass, Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is a young girl living at Jordan College in Oxford. We are told that her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), has left her there under the care of the faculty. However, a mysterious woman, Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) whisks in and takes her on an adventure to the North. Seems Lyra is key to some larger scheme at play (again, sure to be expounded upon in the sequels), and before she leaves the college, the headmaster gives her an alithiometer, a device that “tells the truth.” Mrs. Coulter is after the alithiometer on behalf of the Magisterium, the ruling body of this world.
There’s a lot of exposition that happens here, and while the film ultimately feels like the world’s longest film prologue, it’s a hell of a ride that certainly feels like Part One of Three (come back soon!). Director and writer Chris Weitz has handled a graceful adaptation that is special effects heavy, but never really feels like it. In this world, humans all have daemons, animal manifestations of a person’s soul, that follow their humans around and interact with each other. It’s a fascinating concept, and a large majority of the intrigue with this film is the rendering of these daemons. The effects are seamless and wonderful.
I can’t speak to how well this translates from the books, but the film does lack in terms of its structure. As I said, the film ultimately feels like a giant prologue for what I would presume is a much more interesting story in the next two books. As a result, the film tends to feel padded with artificial set pieces along the way to up the interest level, most notably an extended chunk of the film devoted to a conflict with a tribe of ice bears, one of which Lyra contracts to help her on her voyage to the North.
And even as I write that, I realize that I don’t really know why she’s going to the North. Something to do with Lord Asriel’s quest to find out about this stream of magical Dust that seems to be tunnelling into someone from the heavens and…
Well – it is convoluted, admittedly. But the core ideas here are so fascinating, the acting so strong (especially from Richards in the lead role, who finds the perfect tone for her portrayal of the defiant and adventurous Lyra), and this world so wonderfully rendered that you can’t help but be pulled in for the ride. If the whole series is like a roller coaster ride, The Golden Compass is like the giant first climb to the tallest peak. I, for one, can’t wait to see how the rest of the roller coaster plays out.
Bottom Line:
The biggest problem with The Golden Compass is that it ultimately feels like an epic prologue. At the end of the film, we finally feel like the exposition is out of the way and we can get to the adventure. But what fascinating exposition!
© 2004-2009 Ben Waldorf. Posted December 08, 2007. IMDB