By Kofi Outlaw

The transition from book to movie has always been a tightrope walk. An adaptation must touch upon just the right amount of detail to keep the film true to the book, without bogging viewers down with so much explanation that the movie begins to drag. THE GOLDEN COMPASS takes this latter obligation a bit too far, shaving Phillip Pullman’s dense novel down to a lean, fractured, narrative that leaves you mulling more and more questions, long after the end credits have rolled.

The film tells the story of Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), a young girl from an alternate earth where every human being possesses a daemon—an animal companion who represents their soul. Lyra lives within the scholarly walls of Oxford University with her uncle, the renowned scientist Lord Asriel. Lord Asriel has been conducting research on “dust” a particle emission he believes bridges all alternate universes. The mere mention of dust is forbidden in their world, by decree of the magistrate, a tyrannical cabal of men who rule the alternate earth through fear, coercion and willful ignorance. Despite the magistrate’s forbiddance, Lord Asriel sets out for the North Pole, where he believes he’s discovered an abundance of dust, leaking from a rift between universes. Of course, the film explains little of this, leaving Wikipedia and I to fill in the blanks.

Soon after Lord Asriel departs, the mysterious Ms. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives at Oxford and takes a quick shine to Lyra’s free spiritedness. She coerces the Oxford scholars to release the girl into her care. Before Lyra leaves with Ms. Coulter, the master scholar gives her an important artifact: a golden compass known as an “alethiometer.” Again, we’re told little about this “crucial artifact,” other than the fact that it somehow uses an assortment of needles and pictures to “show the truth” to those trained in its use. Lyra is told to carry the compass in secrecy, as hers is the last alethiometer in the world.


Under Ms. Coulter’s guidance Lyra goes to important parties, meets important people, and shares in a glamorous lifestyle she never imagined. However, the rosy picture soon reveals its thorns, as Lyra slowly realizes that she is a prisoner, and that Ms. Coulter is the nefarious leader of the “gobbers,” the magistrate’s secret police force, who roam the streets kidnapping children to be used in the magistrate’s ghastly experiments. Lyra flees captivity, landing in the care of the pirate-merchant gyptians, who vow to aid her in rescuing the missing children, some of whom are Lyra’s friends.

It’s at this point that THE GOLDEN COMPASS stumbles. While sailing with the gyptians, Lyra meets a witch named Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green) who informs Lyra where her missing friends are being held. Serafina also hints that Lyra and her golden Compass are somehow part of a great destiny—though questions such as what that destiny is, why Serafina is helping Lyra, or even what the witch clan IS exactly, (are there good AND bad witches? Just good ones?) all go answered.

When Lyra reaches the North Pole she meets a kindly airship captain named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliot), who, upon seeing Lyra with the Golden Compass, pledges to help her in her quest (again, no reason as to why.) Lyra also hires an “armored-bear” named Lorek Byrnison (Ian McKellen, voicing a CGI polar bear) to protect her. The film then fractures into shards of sub-plot such as Lorek’s quest to reclaim the throne of the bear clan; Lyra discovering the gobber’s plot to split the kidnapped children from their daemons (never clear why); and Ms. Coulter’s obsessive quest to reclaim Lyra and the Compass. Not one of these plot threads gets a sufficient development, and we are expected to go along for the proverbial ride, without ever knowing where we’ve been, or where we’re going.

The film climaxes with Lyra discovering the magistrate’s artic fortress where her missing friends are being held. There’s a big battle sequence involving pirates, Cossacks, witches and bears (oh my!) and as the film comes to its awkward, abrupt close, Lyra vows to use the golden compass to venture with her father into alternate worlds and somehow defeat the magistrate once and for all.

The cast does fairly well. Young Ms. Richards manages to inject a bit of genuine emotion into the green-screen world created for the film. Daniel Craig and Eva Green, (for what little time they have on screen) are forgettable in their roles, while Nicole Kidman just maintains that half-crazed stare with her hypno-blue eyes, as has become her signature role. Sam Elliot is Sam Elliot, no matter what role that ol’ cowpoke plays. The CGI animals, on the other hand, manage to outshine their human counterparts. Ian McKellen, as a lumbering CGI polar bear, still manages to act circles around most of his peers. The “daemons,” many of which change shape (rat to cat to dog to bird) on a whim, are great characters and are never so over the top (as talking animals can be) as to annoy. All-in-all, THE GOLDEN COMPASS is a stunning accomplishment, visually speaking.


While the elements of Pullman’s fantasy world translate beautifully to the screen, the story telling is tragically sub-par. THE GOLDEN COMPASS, ironically enough, seems to get lost in its own screenplay, never really deciding just how much, or which aspects of the novel it wants to cover. We never really learn HOW Lyra “sees truth” in the compass—the very thing that leads her from point A to point B along her quest; we never really learn about Ms. Coulter’s and Lord Asriel’s exact connection to the magistrate; it’s never explained what these “clans” (witches, gyptians,) are about; we never really learn who the REAL bad guys are, or what larger matter is at stake beyond each immediate crisis Lyra faces. The result is a film that promises you a great meal, serves you a pretty good appetizer, then kindly asks you to leave.

However, seven-figure CGI F/X, + kids, adults and sci-fi nerds of all ages, usually = enough earnings at the box office to warrant a sequel. And, since THE GOLDEN COMPASS is but the first installment of Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, a second film is surely on the way. Lets just hope the next writer and director know how to walk the tightrope of adaptation a bit more steadily. Pullman’s books deserve better.