It's hard to fathom just exactly who 2008’s The Nutcracker in 3D was made for. With its rote tale of children visiting a magical land, it seems to be aimed at kids, yet it’s so vividly frightening at times that I question the sanity of any parent who’d let their child watch it. I can’t imagine any child taking in this mash-up of fairytale and Auschwitz-inspired horror and not suffering some extreme nightmares. Saying that, the film - another very loose adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ - is a well-directed labour of love from experienced Russian director Andrey Konchalovsky. The sets and production design are exquisite, with the feel of an expensive prestige production but, quite rightly in my opinion, critics tore it to shreds because of its seriously confused tone. Konchalovsky seems to be aiming for Return to OZ levels of pushing-the-envelope freaky fantasy imagery but he goes way, way too far.
There’s actually quite a lot to like here. A pre-teen Elle Fanning doesn’t get much room to act as young Mary, transported off to a fantasy world that looks like a slightly grimmer version of our world, but with sinister Nazi-esque soldiers marching about being mean to everyone.
Mary lives with bratty, toy-burning brother Max (Aaron Michael Drozin) and their inattentive parents in a fancy big house. Just before Christmas, they’re babysat by eccentric ‘Uncle Albert’, who appears to be Einstein and is played by Nathan Lane who goes full-on hammy with the Austrian accent, singing about the theory of relativity and stuff. Albert gifts the kids a very creepy wooden nutcracker soldier which comes to life, whisking Mary off to an effects-heavy wonderland.
Some of these early scenes show great promise, with Mary being shrunk down before climbing up the Christmas tree where all the ornaments come to life. It’s all rather beguiling but turns creepy when the dead-eyed CGI Nutcracker ‘NC’ turns and blankly tells her she “looks pretty”. It’s far more sinister than I guess they were looking for.
Once we get to whatever uncanny realm NC is from we meet abominable antagonist The Rat King (John Turturro) and it all gets a bit much. Turturro seems to relish disappearing into this role, with his Andy Warhol wig, fake rodent snout and all-singing, all-dancing performance as the baddie with a deeply unsettling hobby of taking photos of children crying. He also enjoys burning all the toys in town so the soot blacks out the sun, giving this all a misjudged holocaust vibe.
Oh yeah, whenever he’s angry, the Rat King’s face contorts into a terrifying, sharp-toothed rat monster visage. It’s terrifying, startling and completely over the top. Turturro’s performance is spirited, quirky and pure panto and he likely had no clue just how scarifying the finished effects would be.
It’s easy to admire the scope and vision of this film, particularly an exciting helicopter-based dramatic crescendo, but the nightmarish tonal shifts and overarching impression of creepiness means this is never going to be anyone’s festive favourite. It’s not technically a bad film, more a mystifying, confusing one that’s worth a look if you’re curious…and very brave.
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