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Labyrinth
I absolutely love films like Labyrinth when they work. It is set in an Alice in Wonderland-like world in which doorknobs talk, furry creatures of all shapes and sizes (and with varying degrees of friendliness and hostility) roam, rocks belch in swamps as you walk over them, and the entire landscape is apparently a maze which leads to a gigantic, gothic castle where goblins live. This world of fantasy and enchantment is so consistently convincing for Labyrinth's entirety, it is difficult not to be swept away by what is happening on the screen. The film fails in the end because no matter how badly we want to give into this world and be carried away with its magic, the main character is never able to convince herself that it is real, and she is lacking that sense of wonder and awe that we feel as we watch her stumble upon invention after invention with only a smug, unconcerned look on her face. The performance is so distracting that we cannot get into the movie. The said character is Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a teenage girl forced from the “real world” into the magical land of the Labyrinth to rescue her baby brother Toby (Toby Froud) from the evil Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie). In the opening scenes, which take place on earth, Sarah is angry because she has been left home to baby-sit her infant brother, and she inadvertently summons the goblins to kidnap the little tyke after telling him a rather nasty story and playfully wishing that goblins would take him away and turn him into one of their hideous kind. Naturally, this is exactly what happens, and the rest of the movie takes place in Jareth’s kingdom. Sarah must enter into the Labyrinth, based on the terrific drawings of M.C. Escher, and save her brother before Jareth transforms him into a member of his mindless, goblin horde. Along the way, Sarah meets a vast assortment of quirky characters who agree to help her, including a grumpy dwarf named Hoggle and a really big, hairy creature with…a lot of hair. These companions, and most of the creatures that Sarah encounters within the labyrinth, are creations of Jim Henson’s Muppet workshop, and they are absolutely convincing. Indeed, Henson directs the film, and he makes this entire world awe-inspiring, even in its absurdity. The labyrinth is a grand example of set design and special effects working together brilliantly. Image after image rings true. Every impossible feat and distorted angle is startlingly convincing. Imaginary creatures move with such realism that our jaws drop and sparks our imagination. Labyrinth is a feast for the eyes. What’s wrong with Labyrinth is Sarah as played by Jennifer Connelly. For a film to successfully feature Muppets and fantasy creatures of the likes of Henson’s, the human actors included in them have to be absolutely convinced that they are beholding living, breathing creatures. Because we as an audience realize that these monsters are creations of very talented filmmakers, however real they might look, the human characters have to bridge the gap of reality for us, and their interaction with the creatures and the world must be as if they are talking to real people in the real world. That is why a film like Star Wars works so well. At no time do any of the human characters believe that they are talking to anything less than an actual alien or monster or robot, and the audience is easily swept away by the reality of the fantasy. Our disbelief is suspended. In contrast, as Sarah, Connelly is apathetic and comfortable in this fantasy world, as if she believes that it is all pretend. She never emits fear or concern or—darn it all—awe. She seems convinced that the labyrinth is a plaything that she is controlling and manipulating, and even in the moments when she does project concern and fear, she seems aware that she is playing out a false scenario and that the world around her is not real. Consider the scene in which she is caught in a bottomless pit, and the “Helping Hands” appear, catch her, form faces out of palms and finger, and talk to her. Here are some wonderfully creative inventions, made simply out of human hands. These hands all have different personalities and generate amused laughs and slack-jawed amazement from the audience, and we complement the film for creating so much imagination with such a simple process. But how does Sarah react? She simply shrugs and mutters her lines with complete banality. Her lack of shock or awe at these magnificent creatures forces us to remember that—ah, they’re just human hands, and their owners are hidden in the shadows. No brilliantly-imagined creatures of fantasy here. Most of Labyrinth lets us down in this way. Just as we are startled by another image of true creativity—BAM! Connelly’s one-note performance reminds us that it’s all make-believe. Even though we are wowed by the fantastic creations that we behold, and even though we desperately want to believe that they are real, because Connelly never really believes in them, we are unable to feel concern or awe ourselves. David Bowie is much better as Jareth, the Goblin King. Bowie understands that Jareth is a one-dimensional character, with little reason to be a bad buy other than the fact that he’s, well, a Goblin King. Thus, he appropriately blends into this fantasy world as if he was born to inhabit it, and as he struts around singing with his goblins and acting villainous, he continually strikes the right note in his performance. Every moment that he is on screen, the movie shines, because we are watching a human actor who seems to be completely convinced that his surroundings are real. He doesn’t just sweep the movie out from underneath Connelly’s feet; he hits her over the head with it and has a great time. Unfortunately, most of Bowie’s scenes take place in the dark and gloomy goblin castle, and the scenes with beautiful locations and exotic characters in which we really want to be convinced belong to Connelly, who consistently reminds us that the world she in inhabiting is simply a creation on a soundstage. As a result, the film is never able to compliment the world that it exists in, and even though we want to be wowed by this labyrinth, we are in the constant state of being reminded that it is false. This keeps us from enjoying the picture. Connelly has since grown into a very talented, Oscar-winning actress, but here as a teenager, she is simply in over her head. Judging from her recent, wonderful performances in films such as A Beautiful Mind (for which she won an Oscar), Dark City, and Requiem for a Dream, I almost wish that they’d shoot a sequel to Labyrinth, so that we could relive the magic of its setting with an actress who now understands how to inhabit it. Cast: Columbia TriStar pictures presents a Lucanfilm Ltd. Production. Directed by Jim Henson. Written by Henson and Dennis Lee. Rated PG, for some scary images. Running time: 101 minutes. Original United States release date: June 27, 1986. Note: In defense of Jennifer Connelly's performance, Lori Weed writes, "It would have been extremely distracting to have a main character continually ooo-ing and aaaah-ing over the nifty things she sees... Maybe as a 16-17 year old she is reacting convincingly (a very "the world is about me" mindset, selfish but true). In the beginning of the adventure she does give it a go at being 'awed' (alright, sorta awed) but if she kept it up (didn't become a lettle jaded to new nifty things) we wouldn't believe that either." My response: Why wouldn't we believe it? If you were walking around in a complete fantasy world where every corner brought a new, fantastic surprise, wouldn't you be in the constant state of complete awe, or fear, or concern, or something? Sarah could be selfish, level-headed and in shock at the same time. Yet she consistently remains without any reaction at all. Compare her performance to that of Margot Kidder's in Superman. Kidder plays an extremely intelligent character who is in love with a messianic superhero, and her performance generates both wit and awe. She adjusts to her lover, but she is always amazed by him. Thus, we believe her excitement and can realte to her. In contrast, Connelly only comes across merely a bored actress walking along a soundstage, not someone trying to understand the strange new world around her.
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