And, In Conclusion -- The Tale Of Despereaux
Pete Holland Jr.
to get straight into it. The Tale Of Despereaux is a tricky movie to
enjoy. I mean, it is enjoyable. But afterwards, when you try to
explain why you liked it, too many things about the movie get in the
way. And yet you can't quite feel like bringing the movie down
despite the faults.
Based on an award winning childrens' novel, Despereaux himself doesn't
even appear until we are well into the first act. The story proper
begins with a rat named Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman) arriving in the
kingdom of Dor on "Royal Soup Day". In a series of unfortunate events
(grin), Roscuro lands in the queen's soup bowl, accidentally induces a
heart attack in the queen, the king bans soup and rats, and clouds
cover the kingdom but won't rain.
Despereaux (Matthew Broderick) makes his first proper appearance to
the shock of all the mice. He is born with his eyes open and is
unafraid. This isn't to say he is fearless. The jailer and the
chained cat in the second act show that. But fear is not his first
controlling impulse. Not content to simply function in the machinery
of life, he reads a tale of valiant knights and befriends Princess Pea
(Emma Watson, from Harry Potter and subject of some very creepy fan
sites). He is banished to the world of the rats to be eaten, where he
is rescued by Roscuro, who is fascinated by the ideas of chivalry and
redemption that Despereaux talks about.
The setup for a great movie is all right there. First up, the
character models are great. There is actual character to them. Even
without Despereaux's big ears, you know its him from his posture and
movements. Everyone is distinct enough you can tell them apart. The
mice look like mice and rats look like rats, not one simply a
differently sized version of the other. Set designs are also
impressive, giving you the sense of actual societies for the mice and
rats -- these places existed before the camera showed them to you.
Although the humans get the short end of things. There's this guazy
appearance to them, which works metaphorically, but you feel they
could have done better with.
The directing is great, using tracking shots to introduce the
creatues' worlds and giving it a sense of vibrancy and scope. It
knows how to keep things moving without getting too bogged down. The
music score by William Ross is also very good. When Despereaux
visualizes the knight story he reads, the orchestral score become
grand. During the climax, when Despereaux is living his story, the
score intermixes his musical themes into the style of the knight
story, with excellent results.
So why am I so hesitant to heap praise on Despereaux? Simply put, the
screenwriting eats. The plotting is fine, the dialogue is fine. Its
the way the elements are brought in that does it.
Most of the characters are archetypes, and the situations are
cliches. Now, you can still use tons of cliches and archetypes and
still make a great movie. Anyone who says otherwise has never seen
The Princess Bride. And some characters are handled well. The scene
with Hovis the Threadmaster is great. Hovis clearly admires
Despereaux for not freaking out around him like all the other mice
do. Despereaux's parents with their blind faith in the leaders, even
as Despereaux is taken away, are true to form with their timidity
guiding them. But other characters don't work. The king, so mired in
misery and depression, he focuses on his musicalless lute playing
instead of a talking mouse flying around his head (artistic, sure.
Buyable? Nope). Mig, for example. What could have been a tragic
figure or an ironic statement or even someone misguided into doing
wrong is cast aside in favor of her becoming delusional. You lose
sympathy and interest the more she acts like a looney tune. She's not
a character so much as a plot device. Roscuro instantly switches his
motivations with no transition, becoming more plot device than
character. The characters have backstory but no real dimension.
That, however, is mild compared to the somewhat arbitrary nature of
the character introductions and events. Boldo the Soup Genie, for
example. There is no other mention of magic in the movie (aside from
the soup triggering the rains at the end), making you wonder where
exactly this thing came from, considering he only really serves to
transport Despereaux to the rats' arena in the climax. Despereaux
figuring out he can glide with his ears could have been established
when he's dropped in the dungeon in the scene with Hovis, but it
isn't, coming across as gimicky rather than clever. Mig's
introduction is awkwardly handled and the revelation of who she is
will be seen long before the plot devices needed to pull it off are
introduced. Roscuro's plot is also fumbled, pushing Despereaux out of
the film for a good portion of time as the mechanations are introduced
and set in motion. The directoral cut back to Despereaux even feels
like, Okay, time to bring him back into proceedings. The climax is
one big long Dues Ex Machina, since it is all instigated simply by the
chef deciding to make soup, something he could have done at any time,
and everything from a lost locket to a mirror are all just where they
need to be when they need to. The results are dramatic, but have
nowhere near the impact of Despereaux fighting for his life on top of
the cat cage.
And yet, despite the weight of the flaws, Despereaux doesn't
collapse. These are things that I would gleefully rip other films
apart for, but Despereaux and the whole atmosphere of aspiring to
nobility for no reason other than you want to negates a lot. Will I
see it again? I don't know. But the film has a warm spot in my
memory despite everything. I simply like it more than I know I should.