Review: Labyrinth

Jennifer Connelly plays a teenager dreamer assigned the annoying task of babysitting her baby brother Toby while her parents are out. She wishes the Goblin King would come and take Toby away. And he (David Bowie) does. But she didn’t really mean it! Yeah, shame about that. In order to get Toby back, The Goblin King assigns Connelly (having whisked her away to a faraway land) the task of solving a series of puzzles in the title maze-like structure within a certain period of time. Meanwhile, Connelly encounters a series of colourful and eccentric characters and bizarre happenings and obstacles in her way.

 

This 1986 Jim Henson (co-creator of The Muppets, co-director of “The Dark Crystal”, both with Frank Oz) juvenile fantasy has a very special place in my heart as being one of, if not the first movie I ever saw in cinemas...that I didn’t get scared and start screaming like in. “Return to Oz” and “The Goonies” (the latter now one of my favourite films) were not happy cinema-going experiences for me, but this one I was able to sit all the way through. I was, however, dragged kicking and screaming into the theatre, because I would’ve rather stayed home and watched “The Sooty Show” on TV. I was really pissed about it. I was about 6 years old, though, so bear that in mind. Sooty was a very big deal to me back then, and I hadn’t heard of David Bowie at the time. Seeing it again in 2013, I certainly sat through it, though it hasn’t aged quite as well as I had hoped. It’s certainly a far less oppressively gloomy and frightening film than “Return to Oz”, however.

 

The classic fantasy story (basically a reworking of “Alice in Wonderland” by way of “The Wizard of Oz” and “The Dark Crystal”), labyrinth set, and gorgeous young Jennifer Connelly are all in the film’s favour. Most of the film, in fact, holds up fine. However, every time the film puts David Bowie and his music front and centre, the whole thing stops dead. In a role Tim Curry would hit out of the park, Bowie only seems interested in his songs, with Henson similarly disinterested in the character as Bowie isn’t on screen nearly enough to really register. He was definitely better in “The Hunger”, that’s for sure. I don’t like musicals and the songs certainly don’t represent Bowie at anywhere near his best. In fact, they simply wouldn’t rate a mention independent of the film. He looks great, though, in a wonderfully ridiculous sort of way, and the synth-pop is at least more fitting here than the prog rock crap was in “Ladyhawke”. It’s just that there’s no reason for David Bowie to be breaking out into song except...he’s David Bowie. Kids don’t give a shit about his music, so it’s jarring, unnecessary, and like I said, it stops the film dead. Thus the film, otherwise fun, isn’t all that it could have been. Despite Bowie’s songs, it seems to play better to the younger set than “The Dark Crystal” did, but “The Dark Crystal” is perhaps preferable to fantasy buffs.

 

Although the technology has somewhat dated, the creature design here is interesting (even though Bowie’s underlings are obvious descendants of the Skeksis from “The Dark Crystal”), and as I said earlier, the labyrinth itself looks great. I always wanted one of those maze hedge garden thingies. One character looks like Basil Brush in a pirate costume if you ask me, and is quite loveable actually. An Old English Sheepdog, however, steals the film, which is kinda funny because for a film full of puppets, I’m pretty sure Ambrosius is played by a real dog. Connelly doesn’t give an A-grade performance here, but she interacts with the creatures convincingly enough, and is absolutely gorgeous. I had a crush on her at age 6 and still feel that way now that I’m 32.

 

The film has flaws, but the story is pretty classic stuff, and the film is a pretty solid juvenile fantasy. I just wish it weren’t also a musical, because it ends up playing like a series of set pieces rather than a real narrative, even though there is an obvious “Alice in Wonderland” story in there. The screenplay, by the way, comes from one Terry Jones (of Monty Python infamy), based on a story by Henson and Denise Lee. I’m willing to bet that the Basil Brush-esque character came from Welshman Jones (Though I’ve heard a great deal of Jones’ script was thrown out, so who knows).

 

Two interesting observations during the film: 1) The editor’s last name is Grover. OK, so I’m probably the only one to find that funny. 2) At one point, Connelly calls Hoggle ‘Hogwart’. Hmmm, where have I heard that word before?

 

Rating: B-