I didn't
despise this film nearly as much as I expected,
though considering the beauty of the material it
is drawn from the film remains a definite
disappointment. There were two enormous
negatives that slammed in the face during the
early stages of this film- 1)Mike Myers is
starting to run out of voices, and I'm getting
tired of hearing voices from Austin Powers in
his other films. Even the five-year-old child I
was with during this film recognized voices
during this film as previous characters from his
Austin Powers' films (notably, a dead on
imitation of the "Fat Bastard" character during
a cooking sequence), 2) Myers spent an
extraordinary amount of time during this film
imitating the physical performance of Jim
Carrey's "Grinch." Once again, even the children
I was with noticed this fact throughout the
film. These two things were distractions
throughout the film, and kept me from ever
suspending belief long enough to really enjoy
the film. Don't get me wrong...the performances
were uniformly respectable. Yet, I often felt
the characters were more caricatures than fully
developed characters. Sure, this is somewhat
consistent with the writings of Seuss...but, the
film simply didn't have the charm and rhythm
necessary to carry off this absence of
character. Myers did a nice job here, however, I
kept thinking to myself "Jim Carrey would have
been so much better in this film." Additionally,
Myers was supported by Kelly Preston and Alec
Baldwin. They offered adequate performances,
generally outshined by the child stars Dakota
Fanning and Spencer Breslin. Both children
particular shined in the latter half of the
film. I really wanted this film to capture the
charm, innocence and wonder of Dr. Seuss. It
simply didn't. As directed by Bo Welch, this
film was visually appealing yet devoid of any
substance. Young children in the audience
clearly enjoyed the film, and I think most of
the off-color humor was beyond their
comprehension. "The Cat in the Hat" is a
reasonable choice for family viewing, however,
it remains a disappointment to this critic as
the final product clearly did not reach its
potential.
©
Written by Richard
Propes
TC Candler's Comment
This is the
definition of a film built to make money with a
total disregard for any measurable quality.
Mike Myers will soon delete this from his
résumé.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
