FOUR KIDS AND IT
UK, 2020, 110 minutes, Colour.
Teddie- Rose Malleson, Ashley Aufderheide, Matthew Goode, Paula Patton, Billy Jenkins, Ellie- Mae Siame, Russell Brand, voice of Michael Caine.
Directed by Andy de Emmonny.
Definitely a film for a younger audience. A question is how well will older children identify with the two girls at the centre of the story, Ros (Teddie - Rose Malleson and, British) and Samantha, known as Smash (Ashley Aufderheide, American). Smash comes across often as the wilful and spoilt brat. Ros can be disagreeable in a quietly British way. However, we know that by the end of the film they are going to be friends. The little brother and sister, Robbie, British, and Maudie, American, are much more agreeable.
Actually, the title will remind readers of children’s books and those who saw the 2005 film, Five Children and It, based on the E.Nesbitt story, will soon find that this is, quite simply, a variation on the original book. Four children this time, two parents, and the It, a rather playful small creature, who lives in the sand, swimming, burrowing, collecting all kinds of offerings and storing them in the sand, Psammead – and, for parents watching and listening, quite a surprise that, when Psammead speaks, it sounds like Michael Caine with all his voice and intonations. And it is.
The background of the film is that the British father, David, played by Matthew Goode, is looking after his children because his wife has left them to go to find herself in university life. For the American mother, Alice, Paula Patton, her husband has left her and has taken up life in the Seychelles. When both families arrive at the same destination, for a holiday in Cornwall, the two girls discover to their dismay that the parents have been seeing each other and that this is an experiment to see how well they get on.
The two girls don’t. However, down on the beach, Psammead makes itself known, stealing things, pulling them under the sand. However, he is a pleasant creature and his gift is to grant one wish per day, ending at sunset. Which means then for the delight of the children’s audience, there are the stories of the wishes, Robbie wishing he could climb a cliff and enjoying himself clambering over the rocks and the heights. Smash wishes she could be a rock star, the other children getting a helicopter ride to London, seeing her perform, the adulation of the crowd, and everything evaporating at sunset and the difficulty of getting back home. Maudie would like to fly and the children have a kind of Peter Pan experience. Ros, on the other hand, would like to go back into the past, so there is excursion to 1920.
Naturally, there has to be a villain. This time it is an eccentric in a local Manor, played by Russell Brand, in a very Russell Brand in-your-face kind of way. Ultimately, he has wishes as well – and, as we might expect, while he gets his wishes, they also end at sunset!
The children wish things could go back to what they were and that is the temptation of a wish. But, this is the kind of story that needs a happy ending – and the final wish is a generous one and all’s well that ends well.
(Jacqueline Wilson, the author of this book, has a cameo experience during the credits where she is amongst those lined up to get her book, written by Ros, to be signed by the author.)
Not sure whether the adult audiences will like this film is much as the children will.
1. A film for children? Young children? The debt to 5 Children and It – a variation on the theme
2. British production and cast? Americans? For the wider audience?
3. The premise of Five Children and It, the children themselves, getting on with each other and not, parents, the discovery of the creature, the wishes and their fulfilment?
4. The introduction to Ros, Robbie, their ages, Ros and her love of books, dreaming of writing, always with a book? The librarian and Five Children and It? Robbie and his phone, computer games? The relationship with their father? His niceness? Their mother and her leaving them, going to find herself at the University?
5. The introduction to Samantha, her name of Smash, her age, with the boys in the street, Maudie as little sister, antipathy towards their mother? The father leaving them? And the Seychelles? Her wanting to go there?
6. The organisation of the holiday, driving to Cornwall, Ros and the family, the music, their father, Robbie and his games, sick? Alice, the girls, the hostility?
7. The arrival, the parcels, the reaction of the two girls, the lack of preparation for meeting? The rooms, Ros and Smash fighting, taunts?
8. The family going on the picnic, the attempted reconciliation, going down to the beach, the tunnel, Maudie and the doll disappearing, disturbance in the sand, the emergence of Psammead? His look, voice? Michael Caine? His swimming around the sand, appearing and disappearing? Explanation? The wishes?
9. Smash taunting Robbie, the phone on the cliff? His wish that he be a climber? Seeing him clambering over the rocks? The wishes ending at sunset? His being stranded? Ros and the rope and the sign, the rescue?
10. Early the next day, Smash going for her wish, the others caught up in it, her wanting to be a rock star? The helicopter ride and its excitement? The celebrity, the costumes, the crowds, admiration, the audience, performance, the others watching? Sunset and the end of the wish? Trying to get back, the phone call, the train, in the toilet compartment, their being taken back to their parents?
11. Audience response to some of the spoilt brat behaviour of the children? And the parenting?
12. Tristan Trent, eccentric, meeting him on the path, manner, way of speaking, insulting the Americans? Inviting them to visit the house? Showing the ground, the picture resembling Ros? The eccentric collection?
13. Alice, her attempts at cooking and failing? The two parents and their love for each other? And the phone calls from the former respective spouses? And their doing their own thing? Not wanting their children?
14. The wish to fly, the children in the air, Ros hanging onto the tree, disappearing? The exhilaration?
15. The wish, to go back into the past, seeing the children and their clothes, seeing Trent’s ancestor, his pursuit of them? Coming back to the present?
16. Psammead, his look, manner, talking, the wishes, inflating? At home in the sand? Talking about his history, dinosaurs?
17. Trent, his binoculars, wanting the Psammead, the machine goughing the sand, getting stuck? Eventually imprisoning it?
18. The children visiting, Psammead imprisoned, the electric shock? Trent and the fulfilment of his wish, the lavish lifestyle, the house, the furnishings, the women? His final wish,
for all the gold, the coin coming down the steps, the further coins, his being overwhelmed, the coins coming out of the windows and chimneys, the collapse of the house? The end
of the day, his lying bereft, the complete collapse?
19. Ros, formulating the wish, that things could go back to what was in the past, their separating? The drama, the tension, the wish for the Psammead itself, to be free for 100 years, the exhilaration in the sand?
20. And, friendships are made, happy ever after?
