LakshmiFor anyone who grew up with Enid Blyton, The Magic Faraway Tree arrives with a particular kind of nostalgia attached to it. The books were an invitation to imagine a world beyond the ordinary, a place where climbing high enough could lead to entirely new universes. Ben Gregor’s adaptation understands that appeal while giving the story a distinctly contemporary makeover.
The film follows a modern family who leave their familiar life behind and relocate to the countryside. There their three children, Beth (Delilah Bennett Cardy), Fran (Billie Gadsdon) and Joe (Phoenix Laroche), discover the enormous enchanted tree that opens the door to a succession of extraordinary worlds.
Their parents, played by Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield, are dealing with their own very modern problems. Foy’s character has stepped away from her career after her technology was exploited by her former employers while Garfield’s character attempts to reinvent himself in the countryside by starting a rather questionable pasta sauce business.
It is a charmingly messy family dynamic and one of the film’s strengths is that the adults are given enough personality and problems of their own that the story never feels exclusively aimed at children.
But once the children discover the tree the film truly comes alive.
The magical world is populated by the wonderfully eccentric characters Blyton readers will recognize including Moonface, the Saucepan Man, Dame Washalot and most adorably Nicola Coughlan as Silky. Coughlan brings exactly the right combination of sweetness and mischief to the fairy making her an immediate highlight.
The children however remain the heart of the movie. Bennett Cardy, Gadsdon and Laroche have an appealing chemistry and their adventures feel driven by genuine curiosity rather than the usual save the world stakes that dominate so much modern family fantasy.
That smaller scale is refreshing.
Instead of another CGI heavy adventure where the fate of the universe hangs in the balance The Magic Faraway Tree is fundamentally about a family finding its way back to one another. The children’s journey through the tree becomes a metaphor for reconnecting with imagination, curiosity and each other.
Gregor also cleverly updates the central conflict for today’s children. Screens, smartphones and technology are part of their everyday lives and the film gently contrasts that digital world with the freedom of being outdoors and letting one’s imagination take over.
It is not exactly subtle but it works.
The various lands provide the film with its greatest bursts of visual fun. The Land of Goodies is packed with sweets, marshmallow trees and delightfully ridiculous imagery while the Land of Birthdays offers the children the tantalizing possibility of having one permanent wish. There is also Dame Snap, played by Rebecca Ferguson, whose larger than life presence brings a slightly darker energy to the otherwise cheerful adventure.
What works particularly well is that Gregor allows these worlds time to breathe. The film does not feel as though it is frantically racing toward the next spectacle. Instead there is a leisurely quality to the storytelling that feels surprisingly faithful to the spirit of Blyton’s books.
And that may be the film’s greatest achievement.
The Magic Faraway Tree is not trying to recreate childhood exactly as it existed in the 1930s or 1940s. It is asking what the story means to children growing up now. The answer is still remarkably simple: sometimes you need to put the screen down, walk outside and discover something impossible.
For adults who grew up with the books there is plenty of nostalgia to enjoy. For younger audiences the film offers an inviting introduction to a world where imagination is still allowed to be completely ridiculous.
With its charming ensemble, colorful fantasy worlds, gentle family story and modern perspective The Magic Faraway Tree is an easygoing adventure that does not need to reinvent children’s cinema to be effective.
It simply remembers why stories like these mattered in the first place: because somewhere beyond the ordinary world there might always be another one waiting to be discovered.
Lakshmi
