'The Golden Compass' lacks direction
BY CHRIS GAETANO Movie Critic

New Line Cinema release
Di rected by: Chris Weitz
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig,
Dakota Blue Richards, Ian McKellen
Running time: 113 minutes
Classified: PG-13
'The Golden Compass," from which the film directed by Chris Weitz derives its name, is a mystical device with the ability to answer any question the wielder asks of it. What complicates matters, though, is that while these alethiometers, as they are called, are rare in and of themselves, those able to accurately derive any sort of meaning from them are even more so.

Regrettably, this inscrutable, arcane piece of magical clockwork serves as a perfect metaphor for the film. While the movie is undeniably good looking, containing lush environments and beautifully detailed creatures, the setting's internal logic is either completely unfathomable or entirely absent.

"The Golden Compass" takes place in a parallel universe where people's souls exist outside their bodies in the form of animal spirits called Daemons. It is a world where the authoritarian Magisterium, a theocratic regime, maintains hegemonic influence over most of the planet. It is a world where talking bears live in Norway.

The plot focuses on a young girl named Lyra Belacqua, (Dakota Blue Richards), who is raised by her uncle Lord Asrael (Daniel Craig), a professor at Jordan College who soon goes north to investigate a mysterious dust that Asrael says may have a connection to parallel worlds. While Lyra, eager to see more of life outside Jordan College, begs her uncle to accompany him on his journey, Asrael refuses.

Meanwhile, Lyra and the other children have noticed that a number of their peers have vanished recently and pin the blame on a mysterious group called the "Gobblers," a notion that is dismissed by others as youthful superstition.

Shortly after the college approves her uncle's expedition north, Lyra is introduced to the elegant and alluring Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), who is planning a northward expedition of her own. Over the course of a single dinnertime conversation, the two become greatly impressed with each other, and thus when Coulter asks whether Lyra would care to join her on her journey north, the young girl eagerly agrees. Before leaving, the master of Jordan College gives Lyra the golden compass and tells her to keep it safe from the Magisterium, which has determined to destroy every last one of them.

This becomes a problem for Lyra because she soon finds out that Mrs. Coulter is not only an agent of the Magisterium but is directly overseeing the child kidnappings that had been troubling her and her friends. Escaping the woman, the girl finds new purpose in finding a way to rescue the captive children.

The main problem with "The Golden Compass" is that for a film that bases itself around opposing an authoritarian religion, it asks the viewer to accept far too many things on faith alone. Perhaps if members of the audience had a golden compass of their own, perhaps some of the finer details of the setting would be a bit clearer.

They would be able to ask, for example, who exactly the witches that fly through the air are and why they have taken an interest in Lyra's quest to free the kidnapped children - this would make the fact that they occasionally appear out of nowhere to help in some task before leaving just as suddenly appear less like some random deus ex machina designed to help the story move along and more like an integral plot point.

And as long as those golden compasses are still open, the audience might care to ask what exactly the teachings of the Magisterium are and what is it that makes them so evil. Dogma must surely play a role in the actions of the Magisterium, as a religious order, yet the audience is left in the dark as to what it is that the order ultimately wants, besides the typical urge to crush rebellion and dissent that all autocratic movie villains possess. We come to learn that the order thinks that it is doing the right thing, but one is left wondering what exactly this right thing is it thinks it is doing.

The compass might also be able to clear up the question as to why Norway is ruled by talking bears. This martial society of warrior beasts, or Panserbjørne, is fascinating, but no detail as to why these bears are there in the first place is given. Thus, when the exiled prince of these bears challenges his usurper for the throne, there's really no reason to be impressed by this act, because there's no indication of any significance beyond giving the audience the chance to watch two huge CGI bears duke it out.

The film also suffers from significant pacing problems, taking the audience from scene to scene at breakneck pace, making the storyline seem like the writers were going through a checklist of plot points they needed to cover before getting to the end. No one seems to be able to stay in a scene for longer than a few minutes.

The relationship between Lyra and Mrs. Coulter, for example, blooms and wilts like a desert flower, their friendship forming much faster than most adults would be comfortable with today, and souring just as quickly. Shortly afterward, a man named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliot), an airship riding cowboy, decides, during the course of a single conversation, that he should join Lyra on her epic and dangerous journey, though he had only just met this girl a few minutes ago. Lyra is either an unimaginably charismatic girl, or the writers just didn't have time to develop actual relationships between the characters.

To be fair, the movie is eye-poppingly gorgeous, a testament to how far CGI has come since the days of Tron. Furthermore, while the world does little to explain itself, it is presented as imaginative and innovative, with giant airships floating through the sky and clockwork insect assassins hiding in the corners. What makes the world interesting is that while it is a fantasy story, it lacks the overt displays of out-and-out magic that typifies many other films of its kind. In fact, it is one of the few fantasy films in which most people wield not magic swords but rifles and six-shooters.

"The Golden Compass" is a fair movie that will undoubtedly entertain, but its pacing issues and lack of explanation will frustrate people trying to make sense out of what it is they are seeing.