Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Written and Directed
by Zach Helm

At first, before I saw the film, I thought that this was a kind of “Harry Potter Goes to Wal-Mart” or something like that. It, for the most part takes place in the same universe, and as a Christmas movie, it would fit in somewhat better than, say, “Fred Claus” or some other such nonsense. But I was wrong. This is probably the most insidious kiddy flick of the decade. This is about, of all things, suicide, and despite all the whimsical touches and saccharin fantasy elements, is as serious as a heart attack.

Edward Magorium (Dustin Hoffman), who most likely graduated from Hogwarts, is a quarter millennium old, and for the last 113 years, has run the eponymous magic toy store, where the toys play with themselves, and all the children, especially lonely Eric Applebaum (Zach Mills), who's our narrator, love to hang out there and test out the merchandise.

He's run out of new shoes, which were supposed to last him the rest of his life, and thus knows that it's the time to die. So he hires an accountant named Henry Weston(Jason Bateman) in order to get his affairs together and decides to lay the news of intimate demise on his assistant and store manager,  Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), as a surprise. Boy, is she surprised!

Of course there has to be bonding between Henry, Eric, and Mahoney, as the latter two try to save Magorium, [there is a fifth  member of this family, a guy named Bellini (Ted Ludzik), but he's just there and doesn't really do anything], but he's in perfect health, which brings us back to suicide.

This is a G-rated movie, they can't really go out and SAY Magorium is going to off himself, they say “go away” or “go on” and other euphemisms, but the damn thing is there like an elephant in the room. They even show him starting to do it, but don't. Anyone over the age of, say, six could see what's going on.

The theme of the film is death and mourning and while such subjects can be germane to young kids, I don't really think that this film is the right place for such a discussion, neither is pedophilia, which is hinted at when Eric's mother(Rebecca Northan) finds him playing with Henry in the former's room. Exactly what auteur Zach Helm was thinking when he wrote this thing a dozen years ago is anyone's guess.

This thing is certainly thought-provoking, but I don't know what thoughts is should provoke and whether or not parents should take their kids to provoke them.


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