✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Cinema

Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms film review ★★★★★

02 Nov 18 – 02 Nov 19, TIMES VARY

Sugar-sweet, but maybe missing something? Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms looks magical enough, but loses one key element

1 CW reader is interested
Keira Knightley is the Sugar Plum Fairy in Disney's Nutcracker
Keira Knightley is the Sugar Plum Fairy in Disney's Nutcracker
Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms film review 3 Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms film review Intern Culturewhisper
When a film tells a story that an audience already knows, there's got to be magic in the moments that make it worth a watch. Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms borrows from fairytales, ballet and short stories to bring a sparkling world to life – but it feels like there is little to discover beneath the mirrorball reflections.


It's Christmas Eve and Clara (Mackenzie Foy) misses her mother terribly. We know this because she says so, and the other characters in her life do as well. 'You must miss her terribly', her godfather (Morgan Freeman) says before there's any time to feel emotional depth in-between the lines. When he gives her the thread that leads Clara on a journey to find what her mother left for her, an adventure begins through a tunnel that leads to a world Narnia had already teased, just dusted with a lot more icing sugar.



Clara discovers the world of the Four Realms; the Snow Realm, the Flower Realm, the Land of the Sweets and... the Fourth Realm. There's an inconsequential hostility associated with this final realm that provides the catalyst for a conflict that feels superficial and distracting, in service of a world which pleases only in how wonderful it looks. Helen Mirren pops up in a Mad Hatter-esque performance, bringing some kind of gravitas to a world that is as foolish as it is fanciful.


Everything about The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is aesthetically pleasing. Foy performs with elegant posture and prim correctness, with rosy optimism that often hinders the credibility of her pain. Her warring antagonist is, believe it or not, a pantomimic Keira Knightley with candy floss hair as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Somehow Knightley is right at home; her Sugar Plum dabbles in French exclamations and well-accessorised power trips. The self-aware ridicule sells it, and provides adequate laughs with sickly sweet extravagance.


But the film is too haphazard and full of incomplete events to stand out in the canon that precedes it. Tchaikovsky's music is slathered on top of empty ballroom scenes, while vital characters are glossed over in a technicolor haze. Everything that is wrong with the film is embodied by its titular character: he's a well-meaning, optimistic soldier with a striking gold highlight, but for any audience member discovering this story for the first time, young or old? There is nothing to learn about who he really is or why he matters at all. Save the sugar, just crack a nut or two next time.




What Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms film review
When 02 Nov 18 – 02 Nov 19, TIMES VARY
Price £ determined by cinemas
Website Click here for more information



Most popular

Best London Exhibition to see now
Top exhibitions on now in London
Things to do in London this weekend: 9–11 June
Things to do in London this weekend: 9–11 June
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast

Editor's Picks

Kitchen at Holmes, Secret Rooftop Christmas Cinema (Photo: Anne Kapranos)
London's best Christmas film screenings, 2022
Laura Harring and Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive
How to get cheap cinema in London: offers to know
Brie Larson in Unicorn Store
Best films on Netflix now
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
1

Disney

Keira Knightley

Morgan Freeman

Cinema

You might like

  • The Hate U Give: Amandla Stenberg fights injustice with raw power

    The Hate U Give film review ★★★★★

  • Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody

    Bohemian Rhapsody film review ★★★★★

  • Saoirse Ronan in Mary Queen of Scots

    Mary Queen of Scots film review ★★★★★

  • Raffey Cassidy in Vox Lux

    Vox Lux review ★★★★★

  • Keira Knightley in Colette

    Colette film review ★★★★★

  • Eddie Redmayne returns as magizoologist Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

    Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald film review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×