- Starring
- Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, Michael Smiley
- Writer
- Toby Harvard
- Director
- Ant Timpson
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 104 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Ant Timpson returns to Fantasia with his leading man Elijah Wood for Bookworm, after their collaboration on Come to Daddy, Timpson’s feature directorial debut. However, Bookworm is a radically different film, focusing on precocious eleven-year-old Mildred (Fisher) as her absent father Strawn (Wood) returns to her life to take her on an adventure through the New Zealand wilderness in search of a rare panther to collect a wealthy reward.
Fisher and Wood are standouts throughout the film as both develop excellent camaraderie as the story progresses. While Wood’s homecoming to New Zealand is not the career-best performance that is being advertised, he still brings layers to his character that show how fittingly his blue-eyed, golden retriever persona aligns with the role. Strawn encompasses the personality of a desperate approval seeker to highlight his employment as a washed-up illusionist, and a paranoid American city-boy whose “fish out of water” story is heightened as he hesitantly explores the wilderness with his estranged daughter.
Meanwhile, Fisher is the bigger highlight as her precocious, adventurous, and wittingly sarcastic presence as Mildred is the beating heart of the film and one to challenge Strawn in the film’s comedic and emotional moments. Her role will surely be a career-starting performance for a promising future. The dynamic switch between their sarcastic comedy and emotional regrets is certainly the defining factor of the film’s successes. The main drawback is the combination of inconsistent editing pace and unnatural dialogue progression that sparks a major whiplash between the two tones.
Daniel Katz’s cinematography takes full advantage of the beautiful New Zealand wilderness as the backdrop to the film’s most personal moments. Composer Karl Sölve Steven finds a smooth rhythm to the clashing tones through instrumental combinations that result in a rotation of quirky, whimsical, and adventurous beats. Through the bumpy ride of their adventure and the film’s rapid tonal change, the cinematography and music work conjointly in creating a heartfelt bonding experience between a girl and her estranged father as they deal with lavish wildlife, unsettling campers, and an unpolished CGI panther.
In the end, Timpson’s sophomore film with returning collaborators and a promising child actress delivers a funny and heartfelt adventure that is a refreshing break from modern American family films. Despite tonal issues with the film’s editing and script, the camaraderie between Fisher and Wood carries the film’s adventure through the twists and turns in the New Zealand wilderness, conveying an isolated and personal take on the film’s influences.
still courtesy of Photon Films
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