“The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” was always a film I meant to see when it came out…and I didn’t until the other day. What you all don’t know about me is that I have a, current, 15 year-old who has been in her dance studio’s rendition of “The Nutcracker” since she was 3 or 4. I have been to every production to see her dance. It’s been a small joy of mine to see her glide across the stage, so when I saw that is movie was coming out years ago, I was intrigued. While it was stunning to watch, I do have some complains. Just a few. Nothing outrageous.
As I just stated, I have seen a rendition of “The Nutcracker” for more than a decade now. Can someone tell me why there was a need to add Louise? When I tell you I started this movie and I thought Louise was the mother only to find out later that Louise was an older sister, I was immediately confused because why?! Here’s why I had a problem with it. Sure, kill the mother. This isn’t a Disney movie but people love to kill a mom and leave the children just in despair, but why add an older sister? We could have left the dad with jus Fritz and Clara. We don’t even see Fritz and Louise for the rest of the film after they get to the party. That addition just annoyed me. I’m not sure why besides the fact that she served no purpose.
Anywho, moving on to Drosselmeyer, Clara, and the deceased mom. I do love that they made these three inventors. In the original, that I’ve seen, her godfather (Drosselmeyer who is played here by the man you want to narrate your entire life, Morgan Freeman) is a magical. The nutcracker he gives her is a magical gift because he magics it during the party. That’s all I really gathered from the nutcracker. In this version, she gets an egg that Drosselmeyer gave her mother when she was around Clara’s age. Now, although Clara is a clever girl, she doesn’t catch that what’s inside the egg is not what her mother meant by “everything you need is inside.” You can argue her mother left out the word “you,” but I digress. I love smart women and it was refreshing to see this young woman show off her natural engineering brain.
I loved the reinterpretation of the second act. For reference, the kids in my goddaughter’s version cannot wait to get to the skill level to play these parts. Besides the leads, this is where their attention is every year because those sections are like mini solos before they get to be seniors and have actual solos in this play. I was thrown off that Mother Ginger (played by the incomparable Helen Mirren) was the Queen of Amusements and Sugar Plum (played by Kiera Knightly whose name I always say like Michael Bolton in The Lonely Island’s “Jack Sparrow.” If you’ve never watched it, I left it for you after this paragraph.) was the Queen of Sweets. I guess we had to do something with these two characters because there is no person to head the Spanish, Chinese and Russians dancers in the play so I’ll allow it. The movie did do a great job of personifying the Pulcinella’s. I intially thought they were Russian dolls, and although a few of them double as Russian dolls, it’s supposed to be more of a Pulcinella. As much as I would like to explain what a Pulcinella is, I will direct you to the Wikipedia page on them and allow you to do your research.
Before I start on Sugar Plum, I want to stop and acknowlege the magic that is Misty Copeland. She has since retired from professional ballet to focus on giving back to the next generation of dancers, but boy, will we miss watching her move. There is such grace, elegance and strength watching her twirl. With that being said, I love that the movie included a piece of the original play in this way with Copeland telling the story through ballet like it usually is told. It’s kind of mind blowing when you zoom out and thing about it, but it was done in such a clever way, and it brought the audience who has been to seen “The Nutcracker” ballet back to being in those seats and watching those principle dancers shine on stage.
Now, back to Sugar Plum. In addition to Louise, this is where the movie falls apart for me. Marie (Clara’s mother) died, but when she was a girl, she visited this land, which I assume Drosselmeyer also sent her to find herself, created this machine to bring everyone to life. At a certain point, Marie grew up, had a family, and later died, so she could not return to this world. She also couldn’t send a carrier pigeon or owl to tell the people of this world she was dying. My assumption is her death was sudden. They do show Drosselmeyer with an owl who he sends to this world to look after Clara after he sends her there, so my question is why he didn’t tell the people Marie was dead? Honestly, this war is his fault, but we’ll get to that.
Sugar Plum tricks everyone into thinking that Mother Ginger, who they’ve banished for some reason, is the one who wants to take over all the realms when in reality it’s her who wants to take over the realms. Her motivation you ask? Marie abandoned them…this is the motivation. This is it. It’s not power. It’s not greed. It’s not money. It’s not to break out of this world into the real world with real people. It’s because she feels abandoned by Marie…who could not control the fact that she died and could not return to the world she created. This bothered me a lot.
Sure, I get not wanting to do a jealousy thing between this woman and the next but I needed a better reason than she left us. At least make it that since Marie left it opened an opportunity with someone with a better vision to lead this world the way it should be. SOMETHING, Smalls! Something!
Overall, this is a great film to watch with the family. It’s whimsical, it’s magical, and there is no singing, which you all know I love! Tell me, what do you know of “The Nutcracker” besides it’s a Christmas ballet?
