THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Life is always known to have strange chapters. You don’t believe so? Look at The House with a Clock in its Walls.
PLOT
Based on the 1973 novel written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey, the 2018 film takes place in 1955 and follows 10-year-old Lewis Barnavelt move in with his uncle Jonathan after his parents died in a car accident. Upon settling in, he meets his next door neighbor that is his uncle’s friend, Florence Zimmerman and across the street another neighbor, Mrs. Hanchett (Colleen Camp), who’s extremely nosy. Within the first night, Lewis would feel puzzled hearing a tick between the walls. When going to school, he befriends fellow student who is campaigning for class president, claiming that his uncle’s house is a slaughterhouse. The next night, Lewis dreams of his mother (Lorenza Izzo) instructing him to get a book and a key. When he wakes up again, he sees Jonathan smashing the wall with an axe which frightens him. But on the way out, he sees multiple household objects come to life. Jonathan deescalates the situation by admitting he is a warlock and Florence is a witch. He shares how the house was once owned a former friend named Isaac Izard and his wife Selena who were equally wicked in their lifetime. Before they died, they left a giant clock within the walls of the house and Jonathan has been trying to discover its purpose since. Despite the hesitance, he decides to teach his nephew magic. The only rule he gives him is to not open the cabinet he’s kept tightly locked. Back at school, Tarby tries to convince Lewis to ditch the goggles he’s kept since before his parents died. Afterwards, Jonathan teaches him his first spell which is not a success. He uses this moment to share how he left his childhood home due to his father not approving of magic and felt his sister would’ve not wanted him there. However, Lewis clarified she would’ve because she used to talk about him. The next day, the boy continues learning magic which become a better process than before as he uses what he knows in school, unbeknownst to everyone else on campus. By the time Tarby wins his campaign, he chooses to abandon him. Lewis tries to keep him as a friend by revealing the truth of his family. He invites him to the house to show off some spells, but Tarby recklessly opens the cabinet and finds a charm book filled with more dangerous spells of necromancy. Lewis prevents him from casting it by putting it away, just when Jonathan finds blueprints of the clock in one of Isaac’s secret rooms. When dreaming again, his mother insists him to use the book anyway to impress him. On another day, another classmate named Rose Rita Pottinger (Vanessa Anne Williams) offers friendship to him as she knew Tarby pretends being nice to people for the campaign’s sake. Instead, he turns her down and invites Tarby again to a cemetery at night. There, he accidentally summons Isaac from his grave. When the dead warlock rises, Tarby retreats and Lewis runs home hoping for nothing else to go wrong once he sleeps through the night. The following day, Jonathan & Florence find out their old flame has returned and prepare guarding the house with enchanted horse shoes. When temporarily staying with Florence for his own safety, she tells Lewis how Isaac used human bones, possibly out of Selena, to make a clock key as part of a dangerous blood ritual that led to his own demise. Lewis later tells Tarby at school he’s in danger, but he threatens to break his arms if he tells anyone they went to the cemetery together. When returning to the house, dozens of book from the library attack him. Just when his uncle saves him, he shares that he can help decipher the blueprint which he does with a decoder pen. Once deciphered, he deduces the clock to be doomsday-like and will unleash its destruction by the end of the night. Isaac makes his way to the house by burning the horse shoes and torn the inside to pieces looking for the clock key he made. As Jonathan tries melting it, Lewis admits he brought back Isaac, believed that if it worked on the cemetery it would bring his parents back and make things the way it was, besides trying to befriend Tarby. From the window, he sees Isaac try to attack Mrs. Hanchett in her home. He brings her to his house intending to protect her, which only turns out to be Isaac’s plan as Hanchett was Selena all along who not only killed the neighbor and used her bones to make the clock key, but also intercepted his dreams as his mother and used him to get the book due to the charms blocking her. Isaac then explains the blueprints were given to him by the demon Azazel, as a gift to seek relief of the horrors he experienced in WWII. His intention with the clock is to turn back time so humanity never existed and undo what he witnessed. He takes the key from Jonathan and kicks the protagonists out of the house to start the clock. After they defend themselves from haunted pumpkins, Lewis uses his Magic 8-Ball to find the clock’s location, which happens to be under boiler. As Florence fights a snake guarding the room, Issac activates the clock which turns Jonathan into a baby (except his head he was able to shield). Lewis is able to destroy the clock by dropping the 8-Ball onto it, which blocks the gears. When that happens, he channels the clock’s magic to blast both Isaac & Selena, in which they disintegrate. With doomsday prevented, he undoes the clock’s effects on his uncle and the rest of the neighborhood. When Lewis goes back to school, he gets back at Tarby by magically bouncing a basketball onto his face and into the basket. With this newfound confidence, it impresses his other classmates and he officially decides to befriend Rose Rita. The film ends with Jonathan & Florence picking him up from school, now living their lives as a family together.
THOUGHTS
2018 was the year I started to watch Eli Roth pictures and I was surprised on how different of a mind I explored. It threw me off guard to for him to direct a family fantasy when previously doing hardcore horror. That just comes to show people can express their creativity in more ways than one. With that being said, this is Roth at his most creative because he’s at this most patient in world building something deemed special. I didn’t read the book so i didn’t know what I was in for, which left me in awe on the overall execution. The production design and visual effect that brings the magic to life is generally impressive to witness because it’s not everyday you see a garden lion or an evil pumpkin appear the way they do. I just wished I was prepared for Jack Black’s head in a baby’s body because that was unimaginable going into this. Speaking of which, the actors gives a strong dramatic approach as Jonathan while still having signature charm we love him for. While being ecstatic of what he does, he has to manage responsibility as a protective guardian towards Lewis. He was never prepared for that, but he was willing to do whatever in order to have a whole family again as his neglectful father made him grow up in a broken one. He’s proud of being a warlock, which is why he chooses to teach his nephew what he knows because he wants to give him something that can guard him from the dangers out there in the world. If you ask me, he taught him well in making the power his own. The young Owen Vacarro has a much more mature performance compared to Daddy’s Home because as Lewis, we sense how his loss made him lost and made him eager to connect with anyone hence his desperation towards Tarby. Those efforts would sadly be pointless as Sunny Suljic doesn’t hesitate showing him to be manipulative prick at his age. The bond he gets to build with his uncle however doesn’t just help him prevent doomsday, but helps him give his own closure that teaches the audience we can find ourselves when lost as long as we put the effort to do so. Now I love Cate Blanchett as the precise individual that Florence is, but at the same time she feels underdeveloped. She hesitates on using magic until the finale due to the loss of her family which isn’t further explored at all. Because I never read the book, it bothers me because I feel like both viewers (readers & non-readers) should know her backstory without the need of reading if we want to naturally sympathize. Putting that aside, she’s a great companion to both Lewis & Jonathan because she relates to inner healing with them and is able to be upfront on what had to be said. She was like the smart moderator and they needed her more than they could ever know which I believe they’re grateful for her being part of their lives the second they met. In the fantasy genre, you gotta expect the coldest villains to pack a punch. Kyle MacLahlan was splendid in being bad as Isaac, patiently showing him one who he wanted to be healed from the trauma he dealt with in WWII. Of course, he was so traumatized from all the carnage that he was willing to make a deal with a demon to have his inner healing. That’s where he differs from Lewis because he doesn’t care how his decisions are gonna affect others whereas the child had second thoughts before taking action. With Isaac having a wicked supporter like Selena who was also well played by Renée Elise Goldberry, he felt like he was steps ahead until the protagonists caught up sooner than later. With such a threat out of the picture, it is safe to say Lewis and his new family have more exciting chapters in their lives to create together. While this film is averagely fine, there were still a few moments I scratched my head about. For example, I don’t blame Jonathan being hesitant in telling Lewis everything there is to know, as he doesn’t straight up tell him he’s a warlock until caught. But if he really wanted to be close, he should’ve broke the ice during poker which would’ve made things smoother for the boy to accept. Also, ain’t it weird Lewis’ dad doesn’t show up in his dreams? It’s a red flag for us the audience to know he’s being tricked, but he should’ve been confused he wasn’t there. I then wonder why didn’t Jonathan try destroying Isaac’s book? If he was so sure someone could come for it, he should’ve figure out a spell to ensure it wouldn’t ever be rewritten. And lastly, I know Rose Rita means well in wanting to befriend Lewis after Tarby shows his true colors but if she knew his pattern, she could’ve told him way before Tarby had a chance to talk to him. Other than that, this movie still holds up. To wrap up, The House with a Clock in its Walls holds up for being a fun yet somewhat grounded family fantasy’s feature that has its own flair to differ from what you’ve seen before. If you dig fantasy flicks, check this out when you can.
Comentarios