3 Stars Zathura Dir. by Jon Favreau (Columbia Pictures)
Think of Zathura as Jumanji, except good.
The movie is deceptively simple, an adventure in which two rambunctious brothers play a board game that keeps doing strange things (like transporting their house into space and then destroying half of it).
But it's actually a complex balancing act that fixes everything that went wrong in Jumanji, which, like Zathura, is based on a book by Chris Van Allsburg.
Too many special effects, and it would be soulless. Too much snottiness from the brothers, and it would be mean spirited. Too much emphasis on the boys' need to learn to cooperate, and it could seem like medicine disguised as a movie.
But Zathura blends everything as skillfully as Madonna, swiping a chunk of ABBA for her new song.
Lots of movies, for instance, attempt to appeal to both children and adults - Hollywood wants full-price-paying adults, not just discount-priced dependents dropped off at the multiplex - but few figure out the balance Zathura seems almost effortlessly to achieve. Who wouldn't respond to the idea of a game fueled by imagination and wonder?
Especially since the adventure is backed up by issues that will interest children (dealing with a brother who bugs you) and adults (looking back on childhood regrets).
Unlike many slapdash movies for young audiences, Zathura is as cleverly worked out as an intricate thriller - the pieces fit together in a way that is thrilling and emotionally satisfying.
Even the design of the house, a gleaming Craftsman that belongs on the Register of Historic Creampuffs, is important, because its destruction means something. Each time a meteor rips a hole in the woodwork, it feels like a wound. The house feels like a home, and the kids feel like real kids. Zathura hinges on the relationship between young Danny and Walter, who are far from perfect.
They swear a little, aren't always nice to each other, and don't always do what they're told.
Like many real brothers, they want to hang with each other about half the time, and they want to be on opposite ends of the world the other half.
Keeping those competing wishes in balance is what being a sibling is all about. And Zathura is a balancing act, too - finding the elements in a story about children that will appeal to adults, finding the elements of an adventure that will speak to our hearts.
The movie has just the right amount of scariness, just the right amount of humor, and just the right amount of magic.
It is, in fact, just right.
(c) 2005, St. Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.).
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