Plot
Arrietty is a borrower, a mini-person living within the finer details of the human world. With her parents, she works to live a comfortable life through borrowing from their human neighbours. Upon the arrival of curious new human boy Sho, Arrietty must learn what it means to grow up and stay safe in the wake of mounting hardships and danger.
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| Look at it! Look at how pretty is! My eyes ache. |
Studio Ghibli are, these days, held in a very awkward place; a frequent critical darling, they are heralded in the same pantheon as Pixar and yet, unfortunately, struggle to return the statistics of their more mainstream competitors. Arrietty is the studio’s newest offering and is, to date, their best shot at becoming the complete package outside of their native Japan.
A re-telling of Mary Norton’s classic tale The Borrowers, Arrietty drips in the beauty and charm so splendidly typical of Ghibli’s projects. The film offers an enticing glimpse into a stunningly realised, wonderfully inviting, parallel world; simultaneously comfortably similar and also excitingly alien, with even the most innocuous items, such as the humble sugar-cube, given a whole new lease of life. In a glorious unveiling sequence the titular heroine gasps in awe as her father abseils down a kitchen cabinet, veritably scaling Everest itself. The whole world is presented from a new perspective that, while minute in essence, has all the scent of discovery and scale of adventure offered by even the biggest of the action blockbusters. At the end of the film, you will be left either wanting to be Borrower or looking for your very own at home.
As a continuation of Ghibli’s personal creed, Arrietty is a children’s film not solely for children. Whereas too much of children’s entertainment in recent years has been focused on flogging the importance of morals, on the significance of right and wrong and ultimately serving up a glowing plate of sunshiny happiness, Arrietty instead follows a surprising path of emotional realism in spite of its fantasy roots and presentation. The whole film is an exercise in subtlety, weaving the relatively simple narrative around the two main protagonists as they deal with imperfections and hardships in their respective lives. It is around this core of realism that the beauty and charm of the film rotates; Sho explaining his dire circumstances amidst a glorious pasture, Arrietty coming to terms with the dangers of the world on the backdrop of a flowing river, the sheer breathtaking beauty of it all expertly juxtaposed against the difficulties of growing up.
For all the things Arrietty is, there is one key thing it is not: a classic. With neither the narrative complexity or pomp of Princess Mononoke nor the sheer wondrous charm of Spirited Away, it is unlikely to join the echelons of Ghibli’s greats. Further to its detriment is the so-so acting, that this is Tom Holland’s (Sho) first role is unsurprising. Similarly, the writing is irritatingly typical of a children’s film, no more risqué than an extra slice of bacon at breakfast, and competes with the understated subtlety of the film as a whole. While the enticingly foreign figure of Spiller hints at a Borrower’s worlds much bigger and diverse than what is shown, the cast’s insistence on speaking their minds in the most simplistic terms is nothing short of disappointing.
In much the same way as its predecessor Tales From Earthsea, Arrietty is intrinsically weakened through being an adaption. While not recreating the original story word-for-word the film is still stuck in a rut, restricted through the fact that it must abide by the source material. Often there is a hunger for some of the classic Ghibli imagination and character kookiness that cannot be filled. Yet, this may stand to be a positive thing, being based on a property already well known in the Western world, Arrietty is set to stand the best chance at handsome returns outside of Japan.
A re-telling of Mary Norton’s classic tale The Borrowers, Arrietty drips in the beauty and charm so splendidly typical of Ghibli’s projects. The film offers an enticing glimpse into a stunningly realised, wonderfully inviting, parallel world; simultaneously comfortably similar and also excitingly alien, with even the most innocuous items, such as the humble sugar-cube, given a whole new lease of life. In a glorious unveiling sequence the titular heroine gasps in awe as her father abseils down a kitchen cabinet, veritably scaling Everest itself. The whole world is presented from a new perspective that, while minute in essence, has all the scent of discovery and scale of adventure offered by even the biggest of the action blockbusters. At the end of the film, you will be left either wanting to be Borrower or looking for your very own at home.
As a continuation of Ghibli’s personal creed, Arrietty is a children’s film not solely for children. Whereas too much of children’s entertainment in recent years has been focused on flogging the importance of morals, on the significance of right and wrong and ultimately serving up a glowing plate of sunshiny happiness, Arrietty instead follows a surprising path of emotional realism in spite of its fantasy roots and presentation. The whole film is an exercise in subtlety, weaving the relatively simple narrative around the two main protagonists as they deal with imperfections and hardships in their respective lives. It is around this core of realism that the beauty and charm of the film rotates; Sho explaining his dire circumstances amidst a glorious pasture, Arrietty coming to terms with the dangers of the world on the backdrop of a flowing river, the sheer breathtaking beauty of it all expertly juxtaposed against the difficulties of growing up.
For all the things Arrietty is, there is one key thing it is not: a classic. With neither the narrative complexity or pomp of Princess Mononoke nor the sheer wondrous charm of Spirited Away, it is unlikely to join the echelons of Ghibli’s greats. Further to its detriment is the so-so acting, that this is Tom Holland’s (Sho) first role is unsurprising. Similarly, the writing is irritatingly typical of a children’s film, no more risqué than an extra slice of bacon at breakfast, and competes with the understated subtlety of the film as a whole. While the enticingly foreign figure of Spiller hints at a Borrower’s worlds much bigger and diverse than what is shown, the cast’s insistence on speaking their minds in the most simplistic terms is nothing short of disappointing.
In much the same way as its predecessor Tales From Earthsea, Arrietty is intrinsically weakened through being an adaption. While not recreating the original story word-for-word the film is still stuck in a rut, restricted through the fact that it must abide by the source material. Often there is a hunger for some of the classic Ghibli imagination and character kookiness that cannot be filled. Yet, this may stand to be a positive thing, being based on a property already well known in the Western world, Arrietty is set to stand the best chance at handsome returns outside of Japan.
Verdict
Arrietty is a wonderfully composed poem about the complexities of growing up while making sense of and finding your place in the world. While the rest of the summer schedule competes to be the biggest rock ‘em sock ’em 3D action fest, Arrietty offers a chilled, charming and rewarding alternative.
4/5
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Have a gander at the trailer and gasp:
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