Yesterday on Facebook I was harangued by a couple of so called “friends” for expressing the surprised opinion that despite my expectations going into the cinema, the movie “The Tooth Fairy” wasn’t half bad.
Theoretically these two people have a far more developed critical eye than I do. One, Neil, spent two years as director of photography on a long running UK TV drama (ok, ok, it was Emmerdale – but it still counts). The other, Chris, hosts my second favorite movie podcasts, Casta La Vista, and regularly reviews films with humour, intelligence, and an abundance of delightfully foul language.
Yet despite their apparent qualifications I still maintain that they are wrong. The Tooth Fairy fairly watchable, and even strays into “quite charming” territory at times.
I realise I’m swimming against the tide here. Neil and Chris aren’t alone in their dislike of the movie. The movies Rotten Tomatoes’ page say it has an overall approval rating of 17% amongst professional critics, and an average score of 4 out of 10. But I think that’s all rather harsh.
In case you’ve not come across the movie yet, the plot surrounds a minor league hockey player (The Rock) who ends up having to serve a week as a real life tooth fairy in punishment for telling his girlfriend’s daughter that the tooth fairy doesn’t exist. The overall theme of the film centers around the importance to hold onto your dreams and all that sort of thing.
The Rock (yeah, yeah, he calls himself Dwayne Johnson these days, but we all know he’s really called the Rock) is a very under rated actor in my opinion. He’s got a very healthy dollop of charisma and always manages to come across as more than just a musclebound lunkhead. And if you compare him to other wrestlers that tried their hand at acting then he suddenly starts looking like Oscar winning material. I mean I like The Princess Bride as much as the next man, but no one could describe Andre the Giant as anything other than wooden.
So the Rock accounts for himself pretty well in the movie. He plays the whole “Big tough guy in feminised role” shtick very well and with very little obvious discomfort (unlike Arnie who always sucked at it). As I say, I find the guy quite charming and a generally believable actor.
But the real highpoint for me in this film was Stephen Merchant. He’s a comedian that I really like, but unfortunately often find his partner Ricky Gervais a little grating. I very much liked his portrayal of the geeky and awkward tooth fairy probation worker, and found the scene where he squares up to him particularly amusing.
Other actors of note were Julie Andrews and Billy Crystal as tooth fairy equivalents to Bond’s M and Q respectively. I’ve seen a fair bit of criticism of these two veteran actors for doing this film, much of which coming from the guys over at Casta la Vista if I remember correctly, however as I say I feel it’s a bit unfair really. Crystal had a good part with some funny gags which I felt was more or less worthy of him. And Andrews is blandness personified in every film since The Sound of Music anyway, although my Midnight Movie Club co-host Lee may argue that 2001′s The Princess Diaries was actually her finest hour (the girly freak).
So in short I had no problem at all with the casting and performances in this film.
The plot? Meh, the plot was pretty by the numbers. A standard tale of initial cynicism turning to redemptive belief, a device more commonly found on your box standard Christmas movie. But I don’t think this is particularly a bad thing. This is a kids film and children thrive on the familiarity and security that well worn tropes provide.
So all in all The Tooth Fairy is a pretty enjoyable children’s film that I feel has been unfairly maligned by the critics. Sure it’s no Pixar movie, but then very few films are. I’d heard some very negative opinions of the film before walking into the cinema, and so my enjoyment of the movie may have been boosted by my initial low expectations. But it’s a film I’d happily add to my kid’s DVD library.
[rating:6.5/10]
The Tooth Fairy has been out for quite a while now. We saw it at a cut price kids club showing at the local cinema. It’s released on DVD
Disclosure
We paid for our own entry (and horrifically overpriced popcorn) to watch this at the cinema. However if you buy a DVD or Blu-ray through one of the links on this post then I get a very small kickback from Amazon.
