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Movie Review | 'Gulliver’s Travels'

A Gut Visible All the Way From the 18th Century

Jack Black in “Gulliver’s Travels.”Credit...20th Century Fox
Gulliver's Travels
Directed by Rob Letterman
Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
PG
1h 25m

To: A. O. Scott

From: Jonathan Swift [stellasdude@gmail.com]

Subj: Gulliver’s Travels

Esteemed Sir:

On my return from the recent shewing of “Gulliver’s Travels,” whereat I was sufficiently fortunate to pass a choice moment on the Red Carpet in the charming Company of Miss Emily Blunt, I find it politick to communicate with yourself on the topick of this Motion Picture. Surely I state what can only be apparent to any man not a Jackass when I observe that it bears little relation to my original Work. Perhaps you construe that my intent in this epistle is to thunder against a grievous misappropriation of my Book, but please be assured that I have no such complaint. An Apple is but an Apple, while an Orange is some other thing.

Apples, it should be noted, figure prominently among the Products attractively displayed in the course of this Entertainment, which passes, if you will permit me to say so, Swiftly enough — not unlike a small, unvexing Kidney Stone. Much display is also made of other Intellectual Properties belonging, like “Gulliver’s Travels,” to The News Corporation, at whose Fox News Channel I have vainly sought a berth for many years, believing that my publick embrace of Conservative Principles and my long service to the Church might find preferment there. But no. Apparently I am viewed in those quarters as a Tory in Name Only, and an Elitist to boot. Nor have Mr. Colbert’s people replied to my earnest entreaties.

But such unhappy Matters need not detain us here. Indulge, rather, my views on “Gulliver’s Travels,” which somewhat cleverly converts my great Satire into a gaudy, puerile Toy. My avowed purpose in composing that text, as any swot who has suffered the Duty and Dullness rampant in our Schools must know, was to employ my modest pen as a scourge against human Folly and the vanities of the Age. Having deemed itself unable to defeat those foes, this rendition of “Gulliver’s Travels” chuses rather to join them.

The purveyors of the Amusement have superadded to the Spectacle a third dimension, the main Effect of which is to expand the already extensive Belly and Buttocks of Mr. Jack Black, a rotund Clown charged with the task of impersonating Lemuel Gulliver. My storied Voyager is thus converted to yet another fellow of slack Ambition and ample Gut, toiling at a Loser Job and pining for his Stella (or Darcy, as she is here called), a woman of quick Intellect and slender Frame, in whose League he is so totally not. Though of course we never are permitted to doubt that this Stella will smile upon him in the end, and do so moreover with the glorious and gleaming Teeth of Miss Amanda Peet.

Only a few of the true Gulliver’s journeys, to Lilliput and, briefly, to the land of the Brobdingnags, fall within the narrow Compass of this Narrative, which has been transported from my Time to yours. Withal, the Lilliputians are, in some wise, much as I had envisioned them — tiny creatures, indeed, but also proud and ingenious. They are ruled by the noted comickal personage Billy Connolly, whose daughter the Princess is portrayed by the fetching Miss Blunt, upon whom your correspondent must confess he has no inconsiderable Crush. So too, and more to the point of the tale, do the arrogant Soldier embodied by Chris O’Dowd and a local fellow of slack Ambition, etc., etc., performed by Jason Segel. Perhaps you wish to venture a prophecy as to which of them will, at the last, receive the favor of the Princess.

Now, my good Sir, I hope I do not err in venturing a Comparison. Perhaps you are familiar with “Night at the Museum”? Indeed, I observe that you have offered learned Commentary on its second Episode, “Battle of the Smithsonian” — though I confess that I was unable to discern from your Prose whether it met with your full Approbation. To put the matter briefly: This is more or less like That (which also issued from the mighty hand of The News Corporation) insofar as it offers agreeable Novelties and inoffensive jests.

For myself, I was but seldom inspired to peals of true laughter, though I did relish that part when Mr. Black, confronting a fire raging in the Palace of Lilliput, douses the blaze through heroic use of such means as Nature has provided him. This was, indeed, the only moment at which it seemed that the temperament of the Picture corresponded, in some degree, to my own.

To grumble further would be, as the saying goes, akin to pointing my Water toward the Wind. I note that Mr. Black has, in other endeavors, proved himself a Mocker after my own heart, but I can hardly begrudge him the greater emolument that issues from cavorting in the mildly naughty manner of an overgrown tot. I can further suppose that a Child of average Wit or even moderate Dullness — a boy of Nine, let us say, who can be coaxed away from the Wii of a Christmas afternoon — might pass a pleasant interval chuckling at the absurd incongruities that arise when something very large is placed beside something very small. Nor will this notional child’s elder companion be subject to inordinate Anguish, much as he might wish himself in the place of those unencumbered souls thronging the adjacent Room to see “True Grit.”

As for your correspondent, since a further encounter with the charming Miss Blunt seems altogether improbable, I will decline to undertake a second voyage to “Gulliver’s Travels,” chusing instead to devote myself to the preparation of my customary Holiday Feast, a delectable Stew made from the flesh of Irish Babies. (JK! ROTFL!)

I remain, Sir, your most hmble & obdt svt,J. Swift.

Post Scriptum: It is suggested that children attend this Motion Picture under the Guidance of Parents, as a few mild oaths are uttered, and the humor is at moments more Salty than Sweet.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS

Opens on Saturday nationwide.

Directed by Rob Letterman; written by Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stoller, based on the novel by Jonathan Swift; director of photography, David Tattersall; edited by Dean Zimmerman and Alan Edward Bell; music by Henry Jackman; production design by Gavin Bocquet; costumes by Sammy Sheldon; produced by John Davis and Gregory Goodman; released by 20th Century Fox. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.

WITH: Jack Black (Lemuel Gulliver), Jason Segel (Horatio), Emily Blunt (Princess Mary), Amanda Peet (Darcy Silverman), Billy Connolly (King Theodore), Chris O’Dowd (General Edward), T. J. Miller (Dan), James Corden (Jinks) and Catherine Tate (Queen Isabelle).

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: A Gut Visible All the Way From the 18th Century. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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