A Horse of a Different Colour

Oz the Great and Powerful

**½  out of **** 

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Starring: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Zach Braff

Running time: 127 minutes

Oz the Great and Powerful tells the story behind the man behind the curtain. It is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz that does not enhance the 1939 MGM classic but does not defile memories of it either.

Sam Raimi’s imaginative storytelling is brainy and the script from Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire has heart to spare. However, James Franco is miscast in the lead role, without a dusting of courage that makes one less hesitant to root for the disheveled con man protagonist.

The film begins in black-and-white, with a 4:3 aspect ratio (one of the first of many homages to Victor Fleming’s classic), as magician Oscar Diggs (Franco) arrives in Kansas as a member of a traveling circus. (Although he plays a man named Oscar, Franco portrays him with the enthusiasm he gave while hosting the Oscars in 2011.)

Fleeing from a fight with the circus strongman, Oscar escapes in a hot air balloon but ends up flying directly into a twister. That tornado transports him directly to Oz. In Raimi’s film, Oz is still a land of dazzling Technicolour, a myriad of Narnia and some of Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python illustrations. It is also more of a wondrous, candy-coated Wonderland than the one Tim Burton created for Disney in 2010.

In the mystical land, Oscar befriends Theodora (Mila Kunis), a witch with emerald eyes smitten by his wizardry. She believes in a prophecy that a wizard would arrive to defeat the Wicked Witch and restore greatness to the land – and she believes the man to fulfill that destiny is the bumpkin who just flew in from over the rainbow.

However, Oscar gets mixed signals about his presumed leadership from witch Evanora (Rachel Weisz), who doubts that the wizard has what it takes to become a leader. On the other hand, good witch Glinda (Michelle Williams) has more faith in him.

Joining Oscar on his travels across L. Frank Baum’s universe are two new and welcome additions: Finley (voiced by Zach Braff), a flying monkey in a bellhop’s uniform thrilled to assist the newcomer, and China Doll, a tiny, orphaned porcelain figure. The spirit of these two computer-generated characters recalls the colourful charm of Bert Lahr and Judy Garland’s homely kindness.

There is a lot of behind-the-scenes wizardry present in Raimi’s grand presentation – except for the ‘great and powerful’ Oz himself, courtesy of a wimpy, misguided portrayal from James Franco.

Between the lack of gravitas the actor gives to his carnival performance near the start and his stilted line readings throughout, Franco more often depicts a young boy playing dress up in a magician’s outfit. He looks flummoxed when standing beside his leading ladies, all of whom relish their roles and rise above passable dialogue and underdeveloped back-story.

However, for anyone fearing a generic, calculated and Disney-fied commodity, a la Tim Burton’s uninspired 2010 retelling of Alice in Wonderland, Oz the Great and Powerful has an advantage: Kapner and Lindsay-Abaire’s script doesn’t rely too much on the goodwill from the MGM classic.

When the story focuses more on the residents in Oz, there is more at stake and more reason to empathize with the bewildered protagonist. A wistful Danny Elfman score and top-notch production design from Robert Stromberg (who worked on Avatar and, yes, Alice in Wonderland) help make the land sound and look as dreamy as Dorothy Gale would remember it.

Oz the Great and Powerful does not live up to its boastful title, although there are enough moments of sweetness and surprise. The smoke and mirrors may not be enough to make one forgive the acting miscues, but there is more freshness than one would expect from what seems to be a highly corporatized rehashing of a classic.