with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
Marlow Barkley, Jason Momoa, Kyle Chandler, Chris O’Dowd
‘Slumberland’ is a fun, emotion filled trip through a whimsical VFX dreamscape, that utilizes too many cliches to be considered truly original.
Marlow Barkley is a fantastic child actor, who essentially had to carry the film on her shoulders in order to sell the sorrow her character feels throughout the film after the death of her father. Her and Jason Momoa’s charismatic and macho character, Flip, play off each other well, and made for an entertaining and heartfelt dynamic.
Jason Momoa is good fun to watch in this film, but the more and more you watch him, you can’t help but feel how unnatural some of the comedy feels in certain scenes, especially involving his character. Momoa excels at the more subtle forms of comedy, with his fantastic line delivery, but when it comes to his physicality as this character, some of the exaggerated body language felt out of touch with some of the other genuinely funny aspects of the film.
It shouldn’t be misunderstood that this is meant to be more of a touching and sentimental film than a comedy, but the predictability of the events of the film made those emotional beats hit much less for me. From halfway into the film I could tell exactly where it was going, all the way up to the ending. Had the script been more unique, I think this truly would’ve been a great film for an otherwise well directed family flick.
While ‘Slumberland’ may not hit the mark with more mature audiences, it’s sure to be a hit with the kids, and entertaining enough to warrant a family movie night.
