The Hindu Business Line : Make a wish and have a grand time

5 Children & It has what it takes to breathe magic into our hopeless, moneyed, jobs-a-plenty world. A world in which everything has a solution and the problem is exactly that — the demise of the good old wish.

Based on E. Nesbit's book, this film is all about wishing, making them come true, the odd ones that go wrong, paying for a bad wish and eventually, learning to give without wishing.

The plot: England, 1917. Not long after World War I breaks out, five children — Cyril (Jonathan Bailey), Robert (Freddie Highmore), Anthea (Jessica Claridge), Jane (Poppy Rogers) and Lamb — find themselves in that classic wartime family situation of sticking together to survive when their father volunteers to fight and their mother goes off as a field nurse.

The children are sent to the country to stay with their eccentric uncle Albert (Kenneth Branagh) and his wicked son, Horace (Alexander Pownall).

It is an old mansion and Albert has several rules laid down, none more intriguing to Robert than the order to stay off the greenhouse.

Curiosity triumphs and the children soon discover that the greenhouse leads to a beach, home to Psammead (voice of Eddie Izzard) — a rather ugly `sand fairy' who grants wishes.

The fairy's magic has a limiting edge — his wishes last only for 24 hours and occasionally, they backfire on the beneficiaries.

The film's story is hinged to the interplay between the children's characters and the wishes they make, particularly those made in the context of worries for their father's safety.

If you see life as magical, you will slowly settle into this warm fantasy told with cinematic treatment similar to that of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Things are adequately old for life to be alive and noble; even language finds feeling in a 90 year-old conversation.

As for the wishing — it is simple and straight-from-the-heart. No time zones, gizmos or earth shaking special effects.

Psammead is a wonderful creation and Izzard's voice captures well the cynicism and mischief that comes from a thousand-year-old-existence on a non-existent beach.

The children and Branagh are fine, as is Zoe Wanamaker as the vaguely mysterious Martha, Albert's housekeeper. Sole cause for weariness is Highmore and for no fault of his. Seen here before in Finding Neverland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', he is now a star among child actors and possibly therefore, cast on predictable lines.

5 Children & It releases on Friday. See it and give hope to films that are not big studio-blockbusters. Call it a wish.