Film Review: Elijah Wood, Trapped in the New Zealand Wilds with a “Bookworm”

“Bookworm” is a quirky Kiwi comedy that brings together once and future hobbit Elijah Wood with an eleven-year-old girl in the wilds of his old stomping grounds of New Zealand.

It’s a broadly warm, kid-friendly adventure with little tension, a really scenic story that sees through its tonal shifts well enough.

Nell Fisher has the title role, a bookish child with the name of a matronly librarian – Mildred.

This is how the unconventional New Zealand character actor doctor informs the child of her condition when mom has an accident.

“She’s not that dead. That’s not necessary Worries about it. But she’s not really that lively, either.”

Seriously, Doc, the kid is smart for her age. The word “coma” would suffice.

We have no choice but to call the child’s closest relatives. That would be an American magician who lives and works in Las Vegas.

Strawn Wise (Wood) believes in making an appearance. The “biological father,” as he always calls himself, makes smoke clouds with his flint thumb, does card tricks, and tries to impress a child who doesn’t show how worried he is about his mother.

“It’s called MAGIC,” he crows. And she doesn’t have it. But he can take over the camping trip she and mom had planned if it doesn’t cause any problems.

Mildred wants to find evidence of “New Zealand’s Bigfoot,” a creature called “The Canterbury Panther.”

To his credit, Strawn is a real guy. Even if he “doesn’t have the slightest idea about camping.” Even if he doesn’t know this child whose mother he, um, only “met” once.

No worries. She puts on her safari clothes (pith helmet included), uses her numerous newspaper clippings to research, packs a video camera for “evidence” and off she goes.

Director and co-writer Ant Timpson makes the unfortunate “bookish” decision to tell the story in cutesy “chapters” with intertitles titled “Terrible Taste in Men” and the like. But otherwise this story progresses, with a fish-out-of-water wizard coming to terms with his flaws and fears, an overly smart child who becomes unbearable sooner rather than later, a panther, and other dangers to face in some of them must be the most impressive landscape on earth.

Even the locals refer to this or that place in cinematic terms, not all of them Tolkien-esque – “the rock where Liam Neeson played a lion in that film (The Chronicles of Narnia).”

There is a gentle twist towards the uncanny that gives us the moment of truth, bringing with it a spirit of survival, a chase and narrow escapes leading to a harrowing conclusion.

Tonal changes aside, you’d still have to call “Bookworm” a winner – or I would – with Wood at her most vulnerable and victorious and Fisher justifying her babbling, pedantic paycheck that’s equal parts charming and insufferable.

Rating: Unrated, Danger

Cast: Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher.

Credits: Director: Ant Timpson, Screenplay: Toby Harvard and Ant Timpson. A vertical publication.

Running time: 1:43