The Golden Compass: Review

First things first. Never before while watching a major motion picture have I been so acutely aware that I was familiar with the source material. My memories of the book never left me while I was devouring the huge and glossy movie adaptation of The Golden Compass. I savored each new flavorful scene and it was only hours afterwards when my stomach felt empty that I realized this feast was amply spiced and flavored with my quite thorough memory of the recipe in question. I'm a huge fan of  Phillip Pullman's enormous and ambitious His Dark Materials trilogy and I was helping the picture along as it went, adding depth here, inserting scenes there, seeing complexities everywhere.  My suspicions that watching this film without having read the book would present... problems... were confirmed when I talked to two illiterate friends who hated it. (I kid. I kid. They can read. They just hadn't read this). One found it terrible. The other decreed it mystifying. Perhaps a new mandatory film criticism law should be in immediate affect: Each critic must acknowledge prior to his review the depth of his familiarity with any supporting materials in question.

When The Golden Compass was about to begin my mind drifted back to 1984 when I arrived at a neighborhood movie theater to see Dune with my mom and dad. I had not read the books but I loved sci-fi and fantasy. They handed us each a one page glossary of terms from Frank Herbert's series as we entered... to better help us understand the movie you see. I was both excited and terrified. You mean I have to study before I watch the movie? This was a new concept. But as The Golden Compass began I wondered if maybe a cheat sheet would be necessary for it as well. For The Golden Compass isn't an "easy" book per se. Nor will it be a simple movie for those coming into it blind.  Unlike Harry Potter there's no easily relatable experience with which to instantly hook the audience. No memories of your first day at a new school will provide instant resonance; No outsider protagonist is there to have each new piece of the mythology explained to them, and by extension, explained to you. The Golden Compass is closer in spirit to The Lord of the Rings, since each character you meet is already fully immersed in the magical and unfamiliar world. I marvelled at the speed with which the screenplay threw the information out at the audience. There were no long expository scenes to help you catch up, just a line of dialogue here and a reminder there about what you were seeing and clues as to what might be happening next. I thought the exposition was handled superbly until I spoke to my non-initiated friends who were lost.

In brief (though nothing is easy to sum up here) my take is this: Each human in this alternate universe has an animal spirit called a "daemon". These animals are basically the soul of the human in question externalized. "Dust" is the ruling principle of matter in this universe and it flows between spirit (animal) and body (human). The Magisterium (i.e. organized religion --disappointingly masked here to appease the rabid religiosity that's so currently in vogue and which His Dark Materials warns against ) doesn't want people to know about it since it prefers to control the populace with its own rules and regulations. The Magisterium thinks of itself as a benevolent force but it is in essence a malevolent force in both thought (it would prefer that you don't do any thinking) and action (eager to separate the body from the soul). Lyra is a rambunctious orphan torn... oh, never mind. I haven't even got to plot point one yet. Summaries are futile. You'll just have to see the picture or better yet, read the terrific thought provoking book.

The Golden Compass is overly cautious when it comes the rich thematic underpinnings of the source material (wise viewers will still be able to pry them from the movie) but it compensates in other ways. The most visually accessible idea in the book makes the crossover with ease. The daemons (those souls externalized) are great fun and exciting to watch. It doesn't even matter that they sometimes look like CGI beasts since they aren't purely "real" as animals anyway. But here's another trouble spot: The title object an enigmatic compass which aides the heroine in her quest is beautiful to look at (props to the design department) but the visualizations of its magics are sadly uninspired, all swirling nonsensical CGI. It lacks, like the rest of the movie, the intellectual thrills provided by the book. Still, the character lifts give one hope for the future movies (should this be a hit). Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards --a great find) is everything the book suggests to you that she be.  Powerful adult figures in Lyra's life also come to life thrillingly: Lord Asriel, her uncle (Daniel Craig), Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott) her friend, Iorek (Ian McKellen) her polar bear protector and Serafina Pekkalar (Eva Green).

I've saved the best for last: Nicole Kidman is an icy complicated success as the sweet talking condescending Mrs. Coulter. In the film's best and creepiest moment , the one that comes closest to catching the rich adult content embedded in this children's adventure, she hits her own daemon (a golden monkey) and then counsels it with tenderness. That's self loathing and internal conflicts personified; the abuser and the abused. The scene is also a great hint as to what's to come for Mrs. Coulter, a character that only deepens as the trilogy develops. Kidman is stunning but the film robs Daniel Craig of the same intensifying opportunity by coming to an abrupt close before his crucial moment. The Golden Compass (the book) ended on a superb downer of a cliffhanger, a slap in the face with even more sting than Mrs. Coulter delivers to her monkey. The Golden Compass (the movies) opts for an easier way out, probably aiming for "happy ending" The problem is that this first installment of a fascinating trilogy demands a tougher stance. If they needed to excise scenes,one of the middle set pieces could have been absorbed into the narrative somehow. The book needed trimming to work in movie form but the finale which surprises, ups the stakes and delivers emotionally, should have been the last thing to go.  That said, there's a lot to recommend here including gorgeous technical aspects. Fans of the book may be thrilled to see it come to life (as I was) but this somewhat tentative and uneven film will also leaving them wanting a tougher minded, more confident sequel. Better to have this be a stand alone than to fail to deliver one in The Subtle Knife.