8/10
Children’s Fantasy - PG
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David Bowie - Jareth
Jennifer Connelly - Sarah
This movie is near and dear to many of our hearts here at Stardust Cinema. It had it all: fantasy, a strong female lead, catchy songs, and a pair of tights to haunt a girl’s dreams.
Now I may be slightly biased as this was a personal favorite growing up, but the plot line of this movie, while somewhat wandering and unsubstantial at its core, does hold up after countless views and several decades.
The movie starts with our “heroine”, though what exactly she does besides run around yelling and complain I am still not sure, and her family as she yells verbal abuse at her obviously well meaning step mother. Wonderful start to help us empathize with our main character Jim, well done. Through her own selfishness and a rather too vivid imagination she manages to stumble across the one catchphrase that will ensure her brother is stolen by the trolls conventionality hanging out under her brothers crib. (We assume, there has been some debate amongst our ranks where exactly these not-so-lovable muppet castoffs are hanging out during this film, but your author chooses to believe that they were chilling under an infants crib, because that screams family friendly to this gal.)
After immediately backtracking her decision Sarah is given a chance to save her brother. Thirteen hours to solve a labyrinth and claim him back. Now, this may be just nitpicking idiosyncrasy, but this seems like all too easy a quest. I mean come on, she has more than half a day to solve a labyrinth, which for you well intending but ultimately ill taught readers, there is only one path! A Labyrinth has no twists and turns, it is a single line to the center. Go ahead and Google it, I’ll wait here.
See? That’s already bullshit. And our main character has the gall to complain before even setting foot in it. Once she wanders in (after a somewhat PG-13 introduction to our new friend Hoggle as he pisses into a small pond) it is immediately clear that Jareth didn’t do the quality research that you readers have now got under your belts. His “Labyrinth” is truly a maze, so maybe we will give Sarah a small pass for being a little bitch about it. Maybe.
For nearly an hour of the movie we see her struggle her way through obstacles, never quite getting the hang of the abstract thinking needed to conquer this task. The move is littered with a constant barrage of her squealing about how unfair her life is, this phrase leading to one of my favorite moments in the film where Jareth actually dares to question the girl as to why she believes life should be fair. It’s about time someone called our hers out on that.
Finally, we reach the center of the castle after numerous stalker-like scenes of Jareth appearing out of nowhere or spying on this young fifteen year old girl as she wanders his home. As this is a family movie all ends well and our young heroine and her brother make it home safely. But more on that next.
Ahhh the ending of this movie is a true gem. It led to countless sleepless nights in my young teens (no not because of the “crystal balls” Bowie kept playing with), but because we never get any true resolution.
In the labyrinth we are treated to a forced feeling conclusion of Sarah’s rather mediocre acting skills (something i do not blame Connelly for at all, I thought she did a wonderful job with everything else considering her age). This culmination shows us a stereotyped “strong female character” rebuking the villain after discovering her own inner strength. Yawn.
No, the truly interesting part comes after the big climax right when the audience is ready to switch off the DVD, (or the VHS for those truly committed fans). For those who have the patience to sit through the last few seconds before the credits we are treated to an impromptu dance party containing all the various puppets, I’m sorry, friends, she has encountered along her journey. Whether this is in her imagination as the rest of the tale seems to be implied as being, we don’t know. Perhaps her imagination was so strong we are seeing this myriad of creatures come to life Never Ending Story style. maybe she’s crazy. Maybe She’s dreaming. Nothing is ever explained here, or in the commentary (Yes I may have spent another two hours of my life watching this with the commentary, sue me).
I have said it once, and I will say it again: do not go into this movie expecting Oscar Award winning acting. You will be disappointed. While none of the actors (and actress for those of you who like to be politically correct) are overly terrible, there is never a doubt in peoples minds that Connelly is anything but a fifteen year old girl, and Bowie is more of a performer than an actor. Many lines are beyond wooden and only the appeal of a truly unique plot line, and some fantastic voice work from Brian Henson (Hoggles voice man) are able to save this movie.
Soundtrack
Being a Bowie fangirl means I likely will give this soundtrack a larger pass than it may deserve, however I truly feel that Bowie had something going here. While these songs are far from timeless (play it for anyone who listens to music and they will immediately be able to tell you it was an 80s film) there are some amazing themes pulled throughout the many songs. Yet, each song is truly enjoyable as a stand alone single (well, except Chilly Down, but we choose to pretend that song never existed *shudders* )
This soundtrack is a permanent fixture on my Ipod and is one of the first things i show up and coming Bowie fans and soundtrack fans alike.
Not only is the music good, but the dance scenes within the movie itself are well worth watching. The ballroom for As The World Falls Down, and that iconic owl CGI for Underground are both wonderful keystones to trigger a sense of nostalgia for most people. Plus, Magic Dance is well worth revisiting for a few minutes at a time.
Not a film to be basing your views of fantasy around, Labyrinth none the less offers quite a bit for a children’s fantasy show. Decent world building paired with a catchy soundtrack is always going to be a win in our books. If you haven’t seen this film in a few years, grab some friends and a few gallons of popcorn and get ready to have a truly memorable night as you rediscover what it was about this movie that helped awaken your budding interest in this genre (and maybe a few other things as well).
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