THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

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Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass. Photo courtesy of New Line Production, Inc.

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Fantasy is one of my favorite movie genres, but the return of the fantasy film genre has coincided with the rise of special effects technology and the insistence by Hollywood on explaining how each and every effect is created. The advances in special effects are indeed dazzling but have become so familiar that, by now, we know that Nicole Kidman's vicious monkey ( her character's familiar ) in Compass isn't really there when it's attacking Lyra's little kitty cat familiar—and that the cat isn't there either. The awareness that the on-screen magic is being created by a horde of computer operators has had the unfortunate effect of dulling the magic integral to fantasy films. And Compass, with so many characters and effects utilizing the technique, suffers for it.

It also doesn't help that Compass plops us with a thud into a world with the metaphorical thickness of the Dune series—a parallel universe made up of words and cultures of many vowels and confusing subterfuge about the 'dust' that connects all the different lands ( Remember Kyle MacLachlan and his castmates musing about 'the spice' in Dune? It's the same thing here. ) You're still getting your bearings in this linguistic stew before the chase is afoot. Basically, the plot boils down to this: the bad characters—in allegiance to an all-controlling, pseudo-religious conservative institution called the Magisterium—want what Kyra the orphan has: the coveted compass or 'alethiometer.' The compass is dangerous because its power could bring down the fearmongering Magisterium and, naturally, these bad eggs will stop at nothing to get it.

The baddies send out the beautiful but phony/nice Mrs. Coulter ( Kidman ) to take charge. ( Was it on purpose that Kidman's character was named after the love goddess of conservatives, real-life witch Ann Coulter? ) Mrs. Coulter, chic and authoritative, dazzles Lyra, whose protective adventurer uncle, Lord Asriel ( Daniel Craig ) has gone off to work on his experiments to prove that dust is real. Kidman uses the gasping-for-air voice that she utilized in The Others, looks stunning in the exquisite fashions and certainly relishes the part. Moreover, whatever she's done to her face works in tandem with the enormous vanity one would guess the character would have. ( It was the opposite story in Margot at the Wedding, another movie that stars Kidman. )

Meanwhile, Lyra, as it turns out, has friends she doesn't know about who are also eager to protect her and to make sure the prophecy about 'the child' ( or 'the one' or 'the girl with the red corkscrew curls' ) is fulfilled. This resistance is made up of a group called the Gyptians, armored polar bears ( one of whom is voiced by Sir Ian MacKellen, another by Ian McShane ) , a white-haired, bewhiskered Texan aeronaut ( Sam Elliott ) and flying witches, a group led by its queen, Eva Green. The bears are named Iorek Byrnison and Ragnar Sturlusson; Lyra's familiar Pantalaimon; the witch queen Serafina Pekkala; and your friendly movie reviewer Confusion Reigns.

It does eventually all sort of make sense as the picture moves towards the end of part one and little Lyra, a latter-day Dorothy, and her band of miscasts will surely be back for a second go-round, offering further clarification. I'm not really vested in the characters or their outcome yet ( maybe part two will ensnare me ) and don't care a whit about the controversy over the series' supposed anti-religious allegories. But the movie's starry cast, sumptuous design, gorgeous score ( composed by Alexandre Desplat and topped off by Kate Bush singing Lyra, her new composition for the film over the end credits ) , lickety-split running time and love of fantasy, in general, pointed The Golden Compass toward the winner's circle for me.

Jessica Yu, who made the fascinating documentary In the Realm of the Senses ( about Chicagoan outsider artist Henry Darger ) , is now two for two with her new film, Protagonist. It's about four men—a former ex-gay evangelist, a Mexican bank robber, a Kung Fu fanatic and a German political terrorist—whose only connection is their individual battles with extreme behavior. Yu uses excerpts from the ancient Greek plays of Euripides as her thematic template for the film and, using an interesting device, has dramatic moments from her subjects' lives reinterpreted with puppets in the style of ancient Greek theatre. The link between the puppets and the men—who are all forceful personalities—isn't clear at first but slowly comes into focus. The journey of these four individuals, who each represent how men ( gay and straight ) can easily be emotionally screwed up by society's rigid ideals of masculinity, is a fascinating one. Yu's little-explored subject matter and her offbeat, contemplative approach make Protagonist worth a look.

Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site, where there is also ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.