Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium.

"Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium was written and directed by Zach Helm, whose previous major credit was the screenplay for the Will Ferrell comedy Stranger Than Fiction, which envisions a sophisticated adult version of the same kind of magic," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "But if the concept is ingenious, its execution is erratic. The story is arbitrarily divided into chapters of varying length that have no clear beginning, middle or end, and the movie's narrative drive is sporadic."

"Everything is wrong with this film," writes Charles Mudede in the Stranger. "In it, zero is new; dead tired are its plot, imagery, themes, and acting. The movie wants to look and feel fresh, but it instead presents us with a series of heavy corpses: the corpse of the music, the corpse of the set design, the corpse of the dialogue. Even the special effects are not special."

Updated through 11/20.

"Helm fills scenes with the organic trinkets in Magorium's store, but he doesn't give it any greater significance beyond the hodgepodge of clever special effects," writes Eric Kohn in the New York Press. "[Dustin] Hoffman puts on the weirdest performance of his career, playing the crazed Magorium with vigor matched only by his goofy hairstyle, but there's nothing in the story to match that otherworldly sprightliness. He's like Willy Wonka without the chocolate."

"Beneath shrubby eyebrows and upswept hair, Hoffman is, at times, impishly charming," writes Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times. "But Magorium feels more like a collection of eccentric ticks and mannerisms who slips in the occasional life lesson amid a stream of non-sequiturs than a fully realized character. One can almost imagine Hoffman, à la Michael Dorsey in Tootsie, building Magorium up bit by bit as the makeup, wig and false teeth were applied, then perfecting the affected, lispy intonation to complete the transformation."

"[T]he film grows tediously familiar, stuffed with PSAs about the importance of belief and the life you make for yourself until the time comes to croak without fuss," sighs Ella Taylor in the Voice.

"The plot is forever being upstaged by the emporium," writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times.

"Helm's directorial debut is such a fluffy cotton candy confection that it can't be bothered to manufacture any legitimate dramatic tension," writes Nick Schager in Slant.

"So who is Zach Helm, anyway?" asks Scott Tobias at the AV Club. "He's been hailed as a prodigiously talented young writer, but two films into his career, it's hard to see much beyond a gift for mimicry."

Mary McNamara talks with Helm for the Los Angeles Times.

Update, 11/20: For Alonso Duralde, writing for MSNBC, "Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium represents some kind of miracle. The trailers make the movie look like the ickiest kind of whimsy, accompanied by obstreperous special effects, but the film itself is gasp-worthy. And who would think that a movie about the sheer joy and magic of life - and how we need to keep believing in it - could also be a moving and life-affirming story about death? For kids, even?"

Posted by dwhudson at November 16, 2007 12:34 PM