Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Mackenzie Foy, Matthew Macfadyen, Keira Knightly, Helen Mirren, Jayden Fowora-Knight, Tom Sweet, Meera Syal, Ellie Bamber, Morgan Freeman, Omid Djalili, Jack Whitehall, Eugenio Derbez, Richard E. Grant, Misty Copeland, Anna Madeley.

Any form of art should be there to inspire, to look upon something that has been created with disdain is not a natural state of mind, regardless say of the genre, the alluded too message, the perhaps dressed up vanity, or even the down at heel scrawled attempt, it is our soul that we are attempting to save, to express, to live with, and in that event of hoped for salvation and appreciation, we feel hope, we touch promise and dare to dream.

It is when hope is taken from us, that perhaps all that we loved has been taken away, that bitterness and resentment gallop through as if pursued by snorting and foam filled wild horses, when art itself becomes less about the soul, the meaning of expression and more about the pretentiousness, the belief of self-importance and conceit. Then that is the moment that hope doesn’t just die, it leaves a smell in which you can understand the wrinkle of the brow and the sneering upturned nose of others, for in some cases, some art leaves you desperately wondering if there is any redeeming feature you can cling to.

There are films, as there are other schools of art, in which you leave the seat feeling as if you have been conned, others you know you have put yourself through the punishment out of some misguided notion of fancy, that you might blow away some cobwebs of doubt, and as terrible as they might be, as awful as some are when it boils down to it, what cannot be avoided. What must be brought to account is the film that only has pretentiousness at its very heart, a film that sweeps of its feet the joy of a particular art, in this case E.T.A Hoffman’s The Nutcracker ballet and subsequent score by Tchaikovsky, and turns it into a over sensationalised, unconvincing cinematic adaptation, full blown, appearance driven, and whilst remaining as near as faithful to the idea, comes away with a bitter taste of tedium, a re-spun fantasy, The Nutcracker And The Four Realms in which only Disney could ever believe had a point to prove.

Unfortunately, the only points proved is one of the underwhelming and world-weariness that comes with witnessing seasoned, and otherwise intriguing actors such as Helen Mirren, Matthew Macfadyen and Morgan Freeman being associated with such a production. If there is a saving grace to be found in the picture, it is to the company of ballet dancers themselves, especially in the lead of Misty Copeland, who capture the essence of the art, without descending into the realm of undesirable fantasy.

A film in which notable actors are as tin as the soldiers on screen, and in which are out-acted by the CGI elements on screen, is not a healthy place to be; one should always applaud the making of art, but sometimes art makes it impossible to appreciate.

Ian D. Hall