Resigning on principle (because of her company’s intrusively dystopian refrigerator, voiced by Dame Judi Dench), Polly Thompson’s family must quickly vacate their company flat. However, her impossibly cheerful stay-at-home husband Tim wants to use it as an opportunity to unplug their device-dependent children and become a more functional family.
The plan is to move back to the countryside where he spent his youth, building an unlikely business around his pasta sauce. Initially, their rented farmhouse is quite rustic. Technically, it is a barn, without electricity or wifi. However, socially-stunted Fran soon learns her father’s tall tales of fairies and pixies in the enchanted forest are true.
Silky, the friendly fairy, invites Fran into her world, through the poral in the titular tree. From there, Fran and the fairies may journey to yet other worlds, with their own rules and dangers. Of course, the one world to avoid is that ruled by Dame “Snap.” It takes some doing, but eventually Fran convinces her gamer brother Joe and influencer sister Beth visit the Fairies’ tree. However, Beth’s bad attitude might have dire consequences for their family.
In a way, it is ironically fitting that Simon Farnaby’s adapted screenplay incorporates the bowdlerized text, because the film in general feels entirely toothless. Despite the ostensive dangers of the fantastical worlds, there are little consequences for rule-breaking and bad decision-making. The film features plenty of whimsical wardrobe, hairdressing, and makeup designs, but virtually no sense of urgency.
Frankly, this film is largely harmless, but most adults will still be relieved when it ends. It entirely lacks the thematic depth of C.S. Lewis and Lloyd Alexander. In a case of in-betweenness, Gregor and Farnaby refuse to embrace Blyton’s old-fashioned quaintness, but try to compensate with saccharine sweetness. Just not sufficiently memorable to recommend, The Magic Faraway Tree opens today (8/21) in theaters.
