Diary of a Wimpy Kid - is this wimpy or geeky....hhmmmmnnnnn?

My son and husband have been reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for a little more than a year. I hear them giggle, hoot and holler from the other room as they sit and share passages. I must admit it makes me a little bit jealous. They share in a boy-secret world that the girl in me, will never, ever, quite get.

We got our tickets, bought our popcorn and my little family (including two daughters) settled into our dark blue seats and sticky floor, waiting to see how this one-dimensional handwritten story would play out. Gratefully, the story started to play out on the familiar lined paper with penciled in stick-like characters popping in and out of the story. Gregory is a little reminiscent of a younger, and absolutely not cool yet, Ferris Bueller. Without much of a ramp-up, we were all laughing out loud. Finally, I was getting a peek into the secret boy-world.

The familiar characters are at times slightly painful, to the child left inside; from the red-headed-freckled-face-big-eye-glass wearing hyper-geek, to the sinister yet benign high-school bullies, we all remember these kids on some level. We love to hate those stuck-up-pretty-girls and there was always that one nasty-control-freak-little girl with a theater complex. Who doesn’t have a tale about an older brother that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase relentless torture, Dairy of a Wimpy Kid includes all of these and more. Every character from our pathetic middle-school experience is thrown at us much to our humiliation and hopefully at this point in our lives, relief.

Zachary Gordon plays the confused yet anxious-to-be-popular 6th grader, and Diary author, Gregory Heffley. Gordon seems adequate in the role at first, yet grows by leaps-and-bounds as the movie unfolds.

Robert Capron is Gregory’s chubby best-friend Rowley Jefferson. Capron is a young actor to keep an  eye on. He processes great depth and in-sight and does so effortlessly.

Devon Bostick literally steals the thunder of every frame. Bostick is the epitome of the creepy, lying, manipulative older brother. You can’t help but uncomfortably smile at every disgusting and repulsive utterance from Bostick.

Strangely, I wanted to smack the parents. Their dialogue reminds one that this is a pseudo-fantasy story instead of a realistic one. However, the issue of the “grottie-piece-of-ageless-swiss-cheese that curses all who touch it,” should have clued, shame on me! But this is a journey from the point of view of Gregory, and we are along for his ride.

The movie is a bit too long and would have been served with a dose of creative editing. There was one fatal production flaw that can be seen during a pivotal winter scene. The problem... the snow looks very, very fake!   For me, special effects should be used as a storytelling tool. The trick is to make it invisible. Once the magic is revealed, C'est la vie! Another problem was with the director and his decision to break the forth-wall in the first five-minutes. If you are going to break the wall, knock it down, otherwise it is confusing. Gregory addresses the audience, à la Ferris Bueller, but this film is not Ferris Bueller's Day Off, not even close.

(The Forth Wall: The term also applies to the boundary between any fictional setting and its audience. When this boundary is "broken”, for example by an actor speaking to the audience directly through the camera, it is called "breaking the fourth wall.")

Dairy of a Wimpy Kid is a movie ages 8 to 80 will enjoy, together. I left with my family smiling and feeling that the $48.50 for the tickets and $17 for munchies and ICEES, seemed well worth our family’s time and limited budget.

Mommy The Movie Critic Rating:  Diary of a Wimpy Kid 

Under Six Crowd:  B+

Seven - Eleven Crowd:  A-

Tween: A-
Adults:  A-

A Christmas Carol, from Disney, a familiar nightmare not quite right for the family

November 8, 2009 - Charles Dickens never intended for his work to be read by children.  A Christmas Carol is certainly no exception.  When I heard Disney was taking on this 166 year-old tale of redemption, I made the grand assumption they would Disney-it up.  Much to the chagrin of parents everywhere, there is no Disney magic or fanciful fantasy in a single moment of this film.

However, that being said, the film is a piece of art.   It is true to the original storyline and text of Dickens’. masterpiece.  If you are familiar with the story of Marley’s quest for the salvation of Scrooge’s soul, then none of what appears in the first twenty minutes will  disturb you.  But if you are as unprepared for it as the average seven year old, then you may want to think twice about bringing small children into this movie.  The images are filled with despair and darkness.  The use of Victorian English and the associations through dialog may difficult to follow if you are not familiar with Dickens.

All of my children are very familiar with the storyline and its characters.  However, I have kept the story’s frightening images at bay when they are under the age of ten.  I can no longer say I have protected them from such images.  The visitation from Marley alone is totally terrifying.  My 7 year-old daughter screamed and her popcorn went flying through the air.  I suggested we leave, but she insisted Marley would be gone soon and she could handle it.   The subsequent visit from the three ghosts, are genuinely eerie and strange all in their own right.   Most of the elements are expected, if you are at all intimate with the text, however, Robert Zemeckis’ interpretation of A Christmas Carol should be reserved for the tween plus crowd.

Zemeckis’A Christmas Carol is very different from his flat and odd Polar Express.  I found Tom Hank’s six performances to say the very least, strange, and without intimacy.  Since 2004, motion or performance capture technology, has come quite a distance from the lack of dimension demonstrated in Polar Express.  A Christmas Carol is presented with stark realism complete with rotten teeth, blemished skin, tattered clothes and worn faces.

Jim Carrey as Scrooge is in a single word,  brilliant.  Carrey embodies each role flawlessly.  Often he is under-rated as an actor and referred to as a buffoon.  However, this time he seems to have checked his insane antics at the door.  For me, he was the perfect Scrooge.  Gary Oldman’s Bob Cratchett, touches an inner vulnerability all parents hide.  Colin Firth, as the afflicted nephew Fred, and Bob Hoskins as Fezziwig, are wonderfully cast as well.

Disney’s A Christmas Carol has a PG rating, when clearly the disturbing images alone should have earned a PG-13 rating.  But then again, that wouldn’t make Disney very happy at the box office.

This movie will not help your child to sleep at night, in fact, quite the opposite.  However, as an adult, I loved it.  The 3D effects gave me a chill as the snow swirled around the theater.  I imagine viewing the movie without the 3D effects might seem a bit long a dragged out with an incredible level of detail, but let’s face it, so is Dickens.

Mommy The Movie Critic Rating:  A Christmas Carol

For the Under Six Crowd:  F

For the Seven - Eleven Crowd:  C- 

For the Tween: B
For Adults:  A-