The House that Needs More Clockwork
A culture article by Ayesha Ashraf and Varnika Dhandapani
The House with a Clock in its Walls is a mystery novel that was written in 1973 by John Bellairs. The novel is aimed towards a younger audience with its main narrative heavily focused on magic. 45 years after the literary work was published, Universal Pictures produced and released its adaptation of the novel, starring Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, and Owen Vaccaro as the movie’s three main characters.
The story follows Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro), a ten-year-old boy orphaned after his parents were involved in a fatal car crash. His uncle, Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black), takes in Lewis and invites him to his peculiar mansion in Michigan. Lewis attends the public school in his uncle’s neighborhood and befriends Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), Jonathan’s childhood friend and neighbor.
He is henceforth exposed to a new world of witchcraft and sorcery, discovering that his uncle is a warlock. Lewis learns of another powerful warlock, Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan), who had constructed a powerful clock laced with dark magic, and hidden it within the walls of Jonathan’s house. Jonathan spends several months trying to locate and stop it before the clock counts down to a doomsday event. His only clue about the clock’s location in the house is its obnoxious, continuous ticking sound.
When Lewis first reaches Jonathan’s house, he learns that there is only one rule: never open the locked cabinet. In a desperate attempt to make friends, Lewis allows Tarby (Sunny Suljic), the only person at school who is nice to him, to open the cabinet. Through this incident, the movie addresses the peer pressures children are faced with today. To impress Tarby and possibly gain his friendship, Lewis brings Isaac Izard back from the dead.
We found Lewis’s character unrealistic. The way Lewis adjusts so easily to life in Michigan, having just been through the traumatic hardship of losing his entire family, is a major fault of the film. The film loses touch with its own reality, and even though it is a children’s film, it lacked depth in characters. This theme continued with the treatment of other characters, such as Florence Zimmerman. She is one of the most vital characters to the storyline; the film failed to give her a backstory.
Although magic is often a common theme for movies in this particular genre, there were not many instances of large-scale sleight of hand here. Instead, the magic of the film relied on augmentation of physical attacks or parlor tricks.
The movie failed to connect the audience to its main characters, which reduced the anxiety moviegoers would have experienced during intense scenes. Following a suspenseful build up to the battle with Izard, he was defeated quickly and easily, without any repercussions for the main characters. While the original storyline from the trailers seemed interesting, the film itself was disappointing, and the rest of the movie depended heavily on comedic banter and visual effects.
Although this film adaptation of The House with a Clock in its Walls had its many issues and downfalls, there were some positive aspects. Blanchett, Black, and Vaccaro displayed their versatility in acting. The movie even managed to elicit laughter from the audience on multiple occasions. There were few moments in the film that were made largely for the comedic effect, and they made us genuinely laugh out loud.
Something that also stood out positively was the visual effects and cinematography. The mystical scenes within the magical house and the astronomical garden were truly eye-catching through the perfect use of lighting and set design. With much of the movie set in darkness, bright light and sharp motion was a visual treat to viewers, especially when shots panned up to show the glittering stars of a bright night sky. Nevertheless, these positive elements of the movie could not quite make up for the films many faults.