The Golden Compass

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Freddie Highmore, Ian McKellen, Eva Green, Sam Elliott, Christopher Lee, Kirsten Scott Thomas

Written by: Chris Weitz

Directed by: Chris Weitz

Distributor: New Line Cinema

Rated: PG-13

The problem with fantasy stories for the post-modern generation is that they tend to be firmly rooted in naïve and antiquated notions of Good and Evil. But Chris Weitz’s The Golden Compass, based on the novel by Phillip Pullman, is refreshing — a fairy tale for a post-structuralist generation, a bedtime story for children of complexity. The story introduces itself as a tale from an alternate universe, a contemporary world where quantum physics has bred a corresponding quantum metaphysics. There’s no good or evil here — only people and magical beings making often questionable decisions based on relativistic moral codes and mortally limited understandings of the world around them.

Making her screen-acting debut, Dakota Blue Richards stars as Lyra Belacqua, a special girl unaware of her importance in the world around her. In this world, the souls of mortals are physically present in spirit-animal-like “daemons,” which follow their companions around wherever they go. Lyra lives at a college where children are disappearing at the hands of mysterious beings known as Gobblers. When Lyra’s best friend is taken, she sets off on a quest to track him down with the generous help of the beautiful and somewhat sinister Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman). The quest takes her to the far north, where she makes some unusual friends, including the cowboy-like pilot of an airship played by Sam Elliott and a massive, powerful CGI polar bear with the voice of Ian McKellan.

The production design of Golden Compass is impressive – a believable mishmash of fashion, technology and architecture from many different points in history. So is the visual language of the film -- after the first fifteen minutes or so, it seems perfectly natural that people are followed around by animals that represent their overall personalities. Guards are accompanied by guard dogs. Soldiers have wolves. Sam Elliot has a rabbit. People look somewhat out of place until their daemon is clearly visible.

There are some good performances here, too. The producers were lucky that newcomer Dakota Blue Richards showed up in a sea of other girls at open casting calls. She performs with strikingly brilliant emotion. Nicole Kidman has dramatic depth as something more than a villain. The polar bear would look like kind of a grim ad for Coca-Cola were it not for the steely voice of Ian McKellan behind it, and Sam Elliott summons his usual brand of charisma. The same could be said of Daniel Craig, although he appears onscreen surprisingly little, presumably playing a bigger role in subsequent films, should they come to be.

The story makes for a thoroughly enjoyable two hours at the theater, but don’t expect a substantial resolution in the end. The Golden Compass is only the beginning of a trilogy, so with any luck, Weitz’s film will do well enough at the box office to merit film adaptations of the next two novels in Pullman’s series, His Dark Materials. It may not have the mindlessly fanatical and devoted fan base of Harry Potter, but Golden Compass certainly has more than enough appeal to make a full cinematic trilogy a definite possibility. VS