In Lyra's case, Pan sometimes functions as her conscience urging her to do the right thing. Sometimes he's just argumentative or contradictory, sometimes a worrywart, but always a companion. (These daemons are an inspired creation on Pullman's part and are sure to appeal to young and old audiences alike.) Lyra is an orphan and she's been raised by her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig in what amounts to nothing more than a cameo here). She is educated at the prestigious Jordan College. Her uncle is a scientist/ researcher who instills in her a thirst for knowledge and a penchant for questioning authority. She also takes pride in her knack for causing mischief.
Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) and Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) (New Line)
During one of her mischievous adventures, Lyra witnesses Fra Pavel (Simon McBurney), one of the powerful Magisterium, try to poison her uncle. The reason, she discovers, is the fact that her uncle has constantly challenged the oppressive authority of the Magisterium with his pursuit of something known as dust. Dust is a mysterious golden substance that may hold the key to opening doors to parallel universes. Author Pullman has also described it as a way of picturing human consciousness, the most mysterious thing in the universe." Lord Asriel has found evidence of dust in the Arctic Circle and plans to go there for further exploration. This excites Lyra's imagination but Lord Asriel refuses to take the 12-year-old along on the journey.
But Lyra ends up on a different expedition, one headed by the beautiful Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman). Mrs. Coulter charms Lyra and takes an interest in the precocious child -- but she has ulterior motives. She is after an Alethiometer, something that has been secretly entrusted to Lyra. The device, in Lyra's hands, allows her to ascertain the truth about things. All this leads to Lyra setting off on an adventure to the Arctic to find her friend who has been taken by goblers for experiments in the snowy north that Mrs. Coulter may be a part of. Along the way Lyra meets witches, a Texas aeronaut (Sam Elliott of course), and the magnificent warrior bear Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Sir Ian McKellan).
The film cuts the final three chapters from the book (leaving them to the anticipated sequel) and ends at a point that resolves enough to allow The Golden Compass to stand on its own yet with enough promise of adventure to leave you wanting more. Although the final scene is so purely expository that it comes across almost like a promo teaser for the sequel. In terms of quality, the film falls somewhere between the blandly sunny The Chronicles of Narnia and the fantastic The Lord of the Rings . Brought to the screen by American-born, Cambridge-educated Chris Weitz, The Golden Compass may disappoint fans of the book because so much has been simplified or left out. Although the book was definitely marketed to young readers, Pullman invested it with surprisingly dark and complex philosophical and political ideasmost of which don't make it to the screen. So you may find it difficult to see Pullman's intended connections to William Blake and Milton's Paradise Lost in the film. What arrives on the screen, though, is more of a pure fantasy adventure with the subversive idea being its insistence that young Lyra constantly question and challenge authority.
The Golden Compass (New Line)
Author Philip Pullman, in an interview with the Washington Post back in 2001, was quoted as saying of his books, "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief." He also acknowledged a controversy would be likely to boost sales. Pullman got a controversy over his books, His Dark Materials , and now that controversy has followed the adaptation of The Golden Compass (even though the film has striped most of the potentially offensive material out). But now the controversy involves two very different factions. On the one hand the Catholic League (an advocacy group headed by William Donohoe) has called for a boycott because of what they call the film's anti-Catholic agenda. Donohoe warns that the film could prompt parents to buy the books for their children unaware that the trilogy concludes with an epic battle to "destroy God." But on the other hand are the ardent fans of the book who complain about what's been left out. (The books were previously adapted to the London stage where it took six hours to tell the story.)
Pullman has also stated about his own beliefs that "every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by persecuting other people and killing them because they don't accept him," and that "theocracies demonstrate the tendency of human beings to gather power to themselves in the name of something that may not be questioned." In the film these ideas are simplified down to a more standard good versus evil battle with Lord Asriel leading the charge for truth and free will in the face of hypocrisy, oppression and closed-mindedness.
Pullman, who has described himself as both an agnostic and an atheist, has condemned C.S. Lewis' Narnia books as religious propaganda, and in part wrote His Dark Materials as a reaction to them. And although he calls himself an atheist, Pullman has also added: "I am a Church of England atheist, and a 1662 Book of Common Prayer atheist, because that's the tradition I was brought up in and I cannot escape those early influences." What this means is that his criticisms are of organized religion and he proves forcefully anti-authoritarian and anti-ascetic rather than anti-doctrinal. I grew up with a Catholic mother and an agnostic father, and my dad used to read me the Bible every night because he said it was a beautiful work of literature. So Pullman's comment makes me think that he could appreciate the stories and the values found in the Bible without feeling the need to embrace organized religion. In his books he actually extols the values of kindness, honesty, and helping those in need, which are all essentially Christian values.
Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter (New Line)
Near the end of the book The Golden Compass (a scene which probably won't make it into the sequel), Lord Asriel reads Lyra a passage from Genesis, to which she says, "But it ent true, is it?... Not true like chemistry or engineering, not that kind of true? Lord Asriel's reply is to think of the story as an imaginary number, like the square root of minus one...[something you can use to calculate] all manner of things that couldn't be imagined without it." In that answer you sense the mix of science, poetry and wonder that Pullman aims for but which is not evident in the film.
What is evident in the film is a sense of wonder at a new world it creates. The visual effects employed to create the creaturesfrom the daemons to the armored polar bearsis exceptional. The ease with which the animals interact with the humans allows us to believe in this fantasy world. There is also a nice mix of visual elements. Dirigibles and balloons, magic armor that contains a bears soul, golden science equipmentthey combine to create a sense of both Victorian England and a fantastical parallel universe.
Lyra and Iorek Byrnison (New Line)
The star of the film is young Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. She comes across as very mature although she's not an annoying mini-adult. She's mature in her assurance about herself and what she needs to do, but still a child in her innocence and wonder. She also displays an appealing rebellious quality. Kidman is just right as a chilly ice queen who's not to be trusted. Christopher Lee appears briefly as one of the evil Magisterium and I fear the bulk of his scenes (as in Lord of the Rings ) may have ended up on the cutting room floor. Craig barely has time to create any kind of presence with Lord Asriel, but I like the gruff way he refuses to coddle Lyra.
Weitz doesn't invest The Golden Compass with the same passion or intensity as Peter Jackson gave to The Lord of the Rings . Weitz does a solid but not passionate job. Maybe the size of the project and the vast amount of effects work was daunting to someone who's previous effort was the much smaller scaled About a Boy . Weitz also hasn't quite figured out how to balance the scale of the film with the human interaction.
The Golden Compass (rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence) has a chilly intellectual quality that may turn off very young viewers but not enough substance to really satisfy older fans of the books. But the inspired fantasy elements and battles should appeal to older kids. As for adults, they won't find it as satisfying as The Lord of the Rings , but it packs enough fun and fantasy to keep the kid in you entertained and engaged. And we can always hope that the sequel will try to tackle some of the fascinating and more complex ideas from the book.
Companion viewing: The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Full Metal Alchemist
Listen to a discussion of the book and the film from These Days .
