FANTASIA24 REVIEW: Bookworm [2024]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 103 minutes
Release Date: July 4th, 2024 (New Zealand) / October 18th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Rialto Distribution / Vertical Entertainment
Director(s): Ant Timpson
Writer(s): Toby Harvard / Toby Harvard & Ant Timpson (story)

What the hell is a Vin Diesel?

When a freak toaster accident leaves her mother in a coma, eleven-year-old Mildred (Nell Fisher) is alone. With no real friends (she “doesn’t talk like a normal child” and could probably start college next year if the process of enrollment wouldn’t also give her brainiac, “brutal realist” the opportunity to alienate the entire admissions office) and a neighbor too reluctant to give her affection (in case someone sues), her only shot at a guardian is the American illusionist father she’s never met. To his credit, Strawn Wise (Elijah Wood) does come to her aid. Unfortunately for Mildred, however, he needs her to take care of him more than the other way around.

As such, it’s not difficult to talk him into taking her on a camping trip into the New Zealand wilderness at the start of Ant Timpson’s Bookworm. Between the guilt of being an absentee father and the realization that she’s way smarter than him, he has no choice but to say yes—even if only as a distraction from these tragic events. Strawn thinks it will be an excuse to bond and get to know her. Mildred simply wants to hunt down an infamous “giant panther” that’s supposedly roaming the mountains. If she can capture it on camera, she’ll earn a fifty grand reward … as long as the duo is also able to escape Mother Nature with their lives.

That sounds more serious than it is as Toby Harvard’s script mostly puts father and “biological daughter” into circumstances that show how Strawn is a master of making things seem worse than they are. He’s easily scared and easily rattled (wait for an overlong monologue about his disdain for David Blaine that proves too pointed to actually be funny), ultimately allowing bad things to happen to him because of an inability to attempt to prevent them. It probably doesn’t help that Mildred is quick to loudly expose him as a pushover whenever the opportunity presents itself. She’s great at kicking him when he’s already down.

The comedy is hardly mainstream as a result. The mood often colors events darker than needed at the beginning and lighter than they should be towards a final act with much higher stakes. It’s therefore tough to pin down: sometimes a cute family adventure, sometimes a black comedy, sometimes a survival film with the assistance of magic mushrooms. Add Michael Smiley and Vanessa Stacey’s Arnold and Angelina providing a threatening presence despite their big smiles and the whole can be exhausting in its tonal and pacing shifts. One second we’re barreling through a moment with excitement and the next we’ve slowed to a crawl for a lengthy lead-up to a punch line that doesn’t quite land.

Thankfully, both Wood and Fisher refuse to let the script’s wild swings get in the way of their charming and endearing performances. The two have a wonderful rapport in their role reversal—one that’s perfectly expressed when a tired Mildred laughs that a “forty-two-year-old man woke up an eleven-year-old girl because he heard a scary sound.” She’s the pragmatist calmly hatching plans when things go awry. He’s the alarmist ready to panic and run off a cliff at the smallest wrinkle. Does this help either of their causes when help is actually needed? No. But they’re learning this fact from their journey. They’re learning that despite not being what the other expected, they might just be what the other needs.