I saw the poster and possibly a trailer for this film that obviously appealed to the kiddies more than the mummies and daddies, and it looked pretty terrible, so I tried it. Basically five children, Robert (Freddie Highmore), Cyril (Jonathan Bailey), Anthea (Jessica Claridge), Jane (Poppy Rogers) and baby Lamb (twins Alec and Zak Muggleton), are evacuated to the countryside during The First World War. They are taken to the mansion of their Uncle Albert (Kenneth Branagh), along with his mischievous son Horace (Alexander Pownall) and housekeeper Martha (Zoë Wanamaker). Given a set of rules to follow and many chores during their stay there is no room to have fun, that is until they enter a certain room of the house they are not allowed, and go through a locked door. This door leads them to an secret empty beach, and it is there that they meet the ancient, ugly and irritable Psammead, or sand fairy referred to only as It (Eddie Izzard). As he is a fairy, he has the power to grant one wish per day, but this wish lasts only until sunset, and the children use this to their advantage when possible. They are unaware though that some of these wishes do not work out the way they expected, so they have to word them very carefully. While Horace is getting suspicious of his five relatives' recent behaviours, the one wish Robert wants in particular from It is for their Father (Alex Jennings) to return safe from the war. Horace does try to be nasty towards It, but in the end they say goodbye to him on his birthday, and their Father does return to them to be happy. Also starring Brassed Off's Tara Fitzgerald as Mother, John Sessions as Peasemarsh and Norman Wisdom as Nesbitt. I can sort of agree without the voice of Eddie Izzard the film would be even worse, but it doesn't make it any better, it is too cheesy, too predictable, and it's not magical even with the moments with special effects, a disappointing family period fantasy adventure. It won the BAFTA for the Anthony Asquith Award for Best New British Composer for Jane Antonia Cornish. Adequate!
Review of Five Children and It
