{"id":18372,"date":"2020-09-24T10:21:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T00:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/?p=18372"},"modified":"2020-09-23T20:30:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T10:30:19","slug":"four-kids-and-it-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/four-kids-and-it-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Kids and It – movie review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kids may find more than adults in the far-fetched children\u2019s fantasy Four Kids and It.<\/p>\n

Thirteen year-old Ros (Teddie Malleson-Allen) is a bookworm, with aspirations of becoming a writer. But she’s yet to find her own voice. She, and her younger brother, Robbie (Billy Jenkins), are good kids \u2013 being brought up by their British father David (Matthew Goode) because their mother left them to find herself. Teenager Smash (Ashley Aufderheide) – a nickname for Samantha – is perpetually angry and seemingly loves to defy the authority of her American mother Alice (Paula Patton).\u00a0 She longs to spend time with her father in the Seychelles. He’s run off with a younger woman. Smash also has a cute little sister, Maudie (Ellie-Mae Siame). The four kids don\u2019t know each other, although the parents most certainly do.<\/p>\n

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They have been dating in secret; and drop this bombshell on the kids. At the same time, they decide to take the quartet on a small holiday break by the sea to get to know each other. Let\u2019s just say the kids are hardly enamoured with the idea. But all that changes when they encounter a large, old, grumpy, toad-like creature with droopy rabbit ears \u2013 known as a Psammead (Michael Caine) \u2013 who lives buried in sand. They keep \u201cit\u201d from their parents.<\/p>\n

The Psammead has the ability to grant one wish a day (with the caveat being these wishes run out at sunset) \u2013 reluctant though \u201cit\u201d may be to do so \u2013 and then the kids begin a series of wild adventures. Also showing a particular interest in Ros is a wacky loner, Tristan Trent III (Russell Brand), who lives in a large nearby mansion. But what is he really after?<\/p>\n

Four Kids and It was inspired by Five Children and It, a turn-of-the-20th-century children\u2019s classic by English author E. Nesbit. Screenwriter Simon Lewis (Tiger House) adapts the novel for the screen from Jacqueline Wilson\u2019s 2012 bestseller Four Children and It. Andy De Emmony (West is West) directs.<\/p>\n

Adult viewers will have to suspend belief and then some. I can only imagine kids would have that ability. The whole thing looks and feels forced. The exaggerated acting and contrived fighting undermine an already shaky plot.<\/p>\n