THE NUTCRACKER AND THE FOUR REALMS: Pretty To Look At, Wooden Underneath

If there is one thing The Nutcracker and the Four Realms proves, it’s that Walt Disney Pictures didn’t learn a single thing from Alice Through the Looking Glass. With Looking Glass losing Disney a rough estimate of $70 million, this new film feels as if the studio thinks changing the IP would make a difference in the box office. Obviously, switching from Lewis Carroll to E. T. A. Hoffmann is not enough. Just look at the numbers: $20 million opening weekend. That’s almost half the debut of A Wrinkle in Time…

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, in almost every way, is like its titular character – pretty to look at, but wooden underneath. For every moment that is funny or visually stunning, there is a moment that is unnecessary or poorly staged. Every time the film shows promise in its creativity and its morals for children, it distracts in its overuse of color and lack of narrative coherence.

Cliché Premise, But OH! So Pretty!

It begins how every family fantasy movie begins. Clara (Mackenzie Foy) is grieving over the loss of her mother, and on Christmas Eve, is given an egg-shaped box as her mother’s last gift. Unable to find the key that opens the box, she finds her godfather (Morgan Freeman) for answers, and is suddenly transported to a magical world parallel to hers. The Narnia resemblance when she first enters the realm is uncanny.

Greeted by a living nutcracker (Jayden Fowora-Knight) and the Sugar Plum Fairy (Keira Knightley), Clara learns more about this magical place, and it’s all awfully familiar exposition. Her mother used to be Queen of the land, and her absence has stirred a war raging across the four realms. The dark Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren) will stop at nothing to take over her neighboring Lands of Snowflakes, Flowers, and Sweets. Seeing that the daughter of the queen has come, the regents of the land seek Clara’s help to end the war. And no, none of this has to do with the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. When it comes to plot, everything is by-the-numbers storytelling.

Where the film sort of stands out is its visual presentation. Some of the production design is dazzling, ranging from the architecture of buildings to the overall flair of costumes. The main castle that takes the most screen-time looks unapologetically Russian – seriously, it looks like Saint Basil’s Cathedral. Though the film barely explores the Land of Snowflakes, Flowers, and Sweets, it has a few shots where the crew demonstrates their love for exquisite-bordering-on-garish costume design. Sugar Plum has a lovely dress, clearly reminiscent of an elegant stack of cotton candy. The ruler of Flowers (Eugenio Derbez) has an outfit completely soaked in green grass from top to bottom. And if that’s not enough, his hair has at least five different dye colors to resemble flowers growing out of his head. As for the ruler of Snowflakes (played by Richard E. Grant, of all people), of course the guy has to look like he’s frozen. But none of the fancy costumes matter if they have little to do as characters. 

How did the Performers Fare?

Being the lead in a big-budget fantasy film with a lot of green screen, Foy had a tall mountain to climb. She had to not only bring depth and personality to Clara but to also ground the fantasy aspects around her. Despite having some unfortunate moments where it’s clear she had nothing to look at (since it’s all green screen), Foy brings a strong admirable performance and a respectable role model for little girls. She sells Clara’s confusion, frustration, and pain. Unfortunately, I’m an adult, and the most glaring issue I can catch is the script holding Foy back. If only she was given better lines or more breathing room in-between scenes.

However, if there is only one reason to see The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, it’s to see Knightley do something completely different. Like a cross between Amy Adams from Enchanted and a helium balloon, Knightley easily stole all of the film’s few successful laughs. It’s unapologetically “out there,” and you can clearly tell she had fun channeling absurdity. It’s my favorite wacky performance in a family movie since Helena Bonham Carter and her large CGI head in the Tim Burton rendition of Alice in Wonderland.

Aside from giving Foy and Knightley some room to play, the script criminally sidelines everyone else. Grant and Derbez together have a combined three lines maximum, and Mirren’s Mother Ginger could have been played by anybody else. Oh, and don’t forget that this movie is called The Nutcracker, yet the actual nutcracker character is so minor and not even significant to the story. 

I Have So Many Questions

As you can tell by now, the script is the film’s biggest downfall. But there are so many more issues in the writing that I can’t even disclose here, due to spoilers. With holes in character motivations that are devoid of logic to gaps in the narrative that hurt the cohesiveness, the film can feel incomplete. Certain plot points that you thought were going to be explained are instead left in the dark – some of them so crucial, you’d wonder how they were left out.

There I was, sitting in the theater, hearing children cheer over the climax and clapping when the end credits arrived, and I was the only one (maybe) thinking, “Wait, but what about this? What happened with that? How did that thing happen?” I came out with so many questions, and it was going to take me a long time to let my occasional OCD slide and let it all go.

And then I found out about its filming process – that director Lasse Hallström first shot the film, and then it was reshot a year later for 32 days by Joe Johnston with a new script – and everything finally made a bit more sense. 

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: It All Feels Very Packaged…

At the end of the day, the most frustrating thing about The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is it’s not a terrible movie – just a movie that’s never interesting, magical, or perilous. From start to finish, it’s seasoned with potential, yet it all feels very packaged, in the hopes that enough people will buy a ticket to see what’s inside.

I can say that an admirable effort by Foy, a confident turn by Knightley, a brief highlight by Misty Copeland, and a legitimately beautiful score by James Newton Howard makes it enough to warrant a viewing, but deep down, I think the audience deserves better. The visuals will delight the children, but the adults have very little to work with this time around. Again, there are certainly worse fantasy movies out there (Eragon, Pan, and the second Percy Jackson, to name a few). But at the same time, I can name a barrage of fantasy movies to recommend over this.

Expect two Oscar nominations for Costume Design and Original Song. Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo bring such warmth to “Fall On Me.”

Did you see The Nutcracker and the Four Realms? What did you think of it? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms was released in the US on November 2, 2018. For all international release dates, see here.