The Witches

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Chris Rock (voice), Jahzir Bruno, Brian Bovell, Charles Edwards, Kristin Chenoweth (voice)
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A boy (Jahzir Bruno) and his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) clash with a coven of witches in a sunny hotel.

Review:

Tim: Robert Zemeckis is such a talented director and has directed so many great films. In his long filmography, though, he has a number of obvious misses, too. The Witches isn't his worst movie, but it's close. There's so little to feel good about here. It's a film that falls between different demographics, so you really wonder who it's for. The film panders to young audiences with multiple eye-rolling moments. It's clearly a film for kids. However, the depiction of the witches is quite frightening and disturbing. A lot of kids would be turned off by that, so it definitely skews older. I think the end result is a film that's not terrible, but not really for anyone in particular. Zemeckis' film gets lost in the telling of its own story and the final result is clearly lackluster.

The basic story is fine- a young boy and his grandmother run afoul of witches during a witch convention. This has obviously been done before, as this is a remake of the 1990 film (which I watched as a child but haven't seen in decades- I'll watch it again soon). I'm not sure why we needed a remake or why this was the end result. But, the basic story structure is fine. The script itself might have been decent, it really feels like it's the execution which is lacking. That's odd, considering who is in the director's chair.

The visual effects seemed a bit weak to me. Sure, the transformation of the witches is pretty good- that was frightening and uncomfortable to watch in a body-horror kind of way. But, everything else felt poorly constructed. The mice never seem believable. The movement of the witches in the air is obviously computer generated. Zemeckis seems to invest a lot of his time in computer animation, but it felt like this film was either rushed or the special effects weren't invested in enough (or both). It felt overall like a subpar effort from the visual effects team and Zemeckis' team, too.

I thought the cast was average. Jahzir Bruno had a ton of charisma for a little kid and I genuinely enjoyed his performance. He conveys a sense of fragility that makes you want to protect him. He was able to establish a nice connection with the audience early on. Of course, (SPOILER ALERT), he turns into a mouse for almost the entire film, so we don't get to see him. Octavia Spencer was solid in the role of the grandmother. She's a supporting character, but Spencer gets a solid amount of screen time. She's an effective and experienced actress and brings a lot to the character. I enjoyed her performance. It was great fun to see Stanley Tucci here, but he's relegated to the sidelines with far too little to do. He's underutilized throughout the entire film. Chris Rock did a fantastic job narrating the film- his voice is so excellent and he uses it to maximum effect here.

And that brings me to Anne Hathaway. In several reviews of this film I read, people obviously had major complaints about it. However, they were sure to praise Hathaway for her performance. I can't understand why. She seemed quite awful in every scene she's in. Her performance is way too over-the-top. It felt forced and inauthentic. You could almost see it on her face, how she reveled in playing this role, in it being a different role than she usually plays. Her performance felt like it was crying, "Look at me! I'm a horrible witch!" verses just bringing this character to life. I never felt like I was watching a character on screen, it felt like I was watching Anne Hathaway play a witch. She doesn't disappear into the character, the character disappeared behind her performance. I think Hathaway is a very talented actress, but her performance here stunk. It hurts the movie.

Overall, I didn't care much for The Witches. It felt like a substandard effort from nearly everyone involved. It wasn't completely boring, but I had so little invested in anything that was happening on screen. I can't imagine many people watching this movie twice, or even remembering much about it after they've seen it. Zemeckis is a great director, but this was anything but a great effort.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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