The Witches

This review may contain spoilers!

 

This might just be the worst Roald Dahl film adaptation yet. I would give The Witches a 3/10.

 

The Witches is an adaptation of a Roald Dahl novel of the same name, in which a young boy and his grandmother accidentally become embroiled in a plot involving a High Witch and her coven. I think this film is at its most entertaining when it tries to push on the realms of fantasy and horror. Making the witches as abnormal as possible so that you become fascinated by how they look, move and act is a strong choice. I think there is an element to this film that is a little offsetting and scary, whether that be from the witches or the dangerous scenarios the protagonists find themselves within. The score for the feature has a very adventurous style to it that lends extreme amounts of energy to scenes, I felt like I was listening to a love letter to 90s family cinema scores.

 

The best performance came from Anne Hathaway, who played the Grand High Witch. I felt this was a role in which Hathaway had a lot of room to play but once she had found her style for the Witch, had to find a way to remain fixed with it. This was a wildly devious and sinister character with little to no remorse for the actions she took. I found that Hathaway readily embraced what made this role so inhuman, cutting to the darkest parts of the role and using human qualities to project this otherly nature of the character. I certainly felt the voice of the role and the wild delivery could go right to the edge sometimes, but nevertheless Hathaway remained consistent in delivering an antagonist that was menacing throughout.

 

This film never managed to really get underway, losing itself to a narration-heavy opening and a first act that didn't know how to get to the point. The first act is crammed with a long introduction of the main character, his grandmother, the historical setting and the tragic set of events that have brought them together. There are a number of scenes here that inch along at a snail's pace, sometimes achieving nothing at all and certainly not doing a great deal to make us feel for these characters. I was longing for the thrill of a family movie that promised a supernatural twist; sadly this didn't lend much help to the plot either. The witches were barely introduced before we were sent down a ten minute exposition and flashback explanation that actually made something so very fantastical sound utterly boring. The film eventually became a bit of a heroic adventure against the bad guys but it was quite simple; at times even more reminiscent of a narrative style that felt outdated. You never really felt like the heroes were in any real danger and often the good guys didn't have to work hard to get out of a moment of conflict. The feature was also seriously inconsistent about whether it wanted to present its information via narration or through characters who were present in the story; ultimately opting a messy blend of both. The cinematography was pointedly dull, often losing style in order to set up for a special effects shot. Meanwhile, the special effects didn't even have the good graces to be nice to look at; often the visuals were quite at odds with what was on-screen, especially the CGI animals.

 

Chris Rock, who voiced the Older Heroic Mouse, sounds like he's just straight up reading his lines into the mic at times; you're never sold on his character and Rock fails to make his copious interruptions to the story sound interesting. Jahzir Bruno, who played Hero Boy, was not a great protagonist for this film; Bruno deadpanned a lot of his lines and constantly struggled to portray a variety of complex emotions. Octavia Spencer, who played Grandma, had a lot of responsibility o carry a lot of this film both in terms of character and exposition; but this was a role Spencer couldn't quite muster to and ultimately she started even coming across as monotonous. Codie-Lei Eastick, who played Bruno Jenkins, was probably the most annoying actor in the film; as far as young performers went Eastick pulled out all of the bad tricks: delivering lines loudly and without emotional range. Stanley Tucci, who played Mr Stringer, was wasted in what might be the most boring character of his career; Tucci flounders in a role whose sole function seems to be the blandest talking character in any scene he's in. Kristin Chenoweth, who voiced Mary, feels at odds with the much younger voice cast she's paired with; Chenoweth has this really grating voice that doesn't fit and makes her role seem like an awkward addition to the main cast.