The Portable Door

Paul Carpenter's day goes from a morning of disasters, with his toaster exploding and a random lecturer professing to know him, to a bizarre interview at JW Wells and Co, a somewhat unusual organisation.

This was one of those films that I was made to sit down and watch with the while family, an array of ages, the feedback was generally positive, personally I rather enjoyed it, despite it not really being my preferred genre.

I was told to expect something along the lines of Harry Potter or Extraordinary Beasts, in truth I could see no similarity at all, other than them being fantasy movies, family friendly fantasy that is.

Not especially exciting or particularly well paced, but oddly engaging and baffling, this film is so strange and weird, it just draws you in. You'll be scratching your head several times as you try to work out what's going on, just accept that it's slightly bonkers, and I think you'll enjoy it.

To summarise, it's very quirky, family fun, it's well acted and oddly engaging.

7/10.

I love a good sci fi and fantasy film, so I decided to give this a try. I'm glad I did, because it wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything like I expected.

The British tend to like their buffoonery, and there was simply too much of it in the beginning. Sam Neill could never be described as cute but that's what they were trying to make him be.

The story was also difficult to follow. The Humphries had me completely baffled until very close to the end.

Considering Jim Henson was involved with this I thought the goblins were very poorly done. Also some of the sets were great but some of the characters not very well defined at all.

Overall I didn't hate it and I watched it from start to finish in one go. But it was very slow to start and just wasn't polished enough to understand, so by the end I only just realised what I had watched.

Paul Carpenter is desperately looking for a job. After a most unusual interview he ends up hired in a company, but he neither knows what they do nor does he even know his duties. Then, two lowly newcomers , Paul (Patrick Gibson) and Sophie (Sophie Wilde), at J. W. Wells and Co., a mysterious firm based in London, uncover a plot by their CEO to disrupt the ancient magical world with modern corporate practices. Nasty villains Humphrey Wells (Christoph Waltz) , the CEO of the company, and middle manager Dennis Tanner (Sam Neill) are disrupting the world of magic by bringing modern corporate strategy to ancient magical practices

There are some similarities to 'Harry Potter' and ¨Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them¨sagas in this solid fantasy with adventures, magic and imagination. ¨The Portable Door¨ is the first book in Tom Holt's J. W. Wells & Co. Series, made up of eight books: The Portable Door (2003), In Your Dreams (2004), Earth, Air, Fire and Custard (2005), You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But it Helps (2006), The Better Mousetrap (2008), May Contain Traces of Magic (2009), Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages (2011), The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse (2023). Following a fascinating first 30 minutes the movie loses impetus as the writer struggles to spin it out towards two-hour length. Patrick Gibson and Sophie Wilde star in this magical film playing two interns become increasingly aware that their mysterious employers are anything but conventional, discovering the true agenda of the vast corporation; alongside the winner of two Oscars for best supporting actor Christoph Waltz (Django unchained) and Sam Neil (Jurassic Park) performing two charismatic villain chiefs. This likeable quartet of protagonists are well accompanied by a wonderful supporting cast, such as: Damon Herriman , Demi Harman, Rachel House, Miranda Otto, Chris Pang, Arka Das, and Jessica De Gouw.

It displays a thrilling and enjoyable musical score by Benjamin Speed. Likewise , a brilliant and colorful cinematography by Donald McAlpine. Along with stunning state-of-art special effects and creatures from Story Bridge Films and The Jim Henson Company. The motion picture was professionally directed by Jeffrey Walker though borrows heavily from other known stories. Craftsman Jeffrey Walker at his debut feature film, but he has directed a number of episodes of popular TV series, such as: The Artful Dodger, Bones, The Clearing , Blue heeler, H2o, Lambs of God, LA to Vegas, The Clearing, Home and away, Dance academy, The Elephant Princess, The young rock, Wild Boys , Angry Boys, among others. Rating: 6.5/10. Well worth watching.

I haven't read the book so I can't judge this movie on that basis. It's a nice looking film with nice photography, there's no problem with editing or pacing. Its what you'd expect from this type of film. The cast was suitably solid but for me the highlight was Sam Neill: His was a stand-out performance, an absolute delight. He just stole every scene he was in and was loads of fun. However, the movie would have been better if not for serious problems with the sound mix. The music is so overwhelmingly loud it drowns out the dialogue to the point where you're struggling to discern what is being said over the sheer loudness of the music. You might as well turn subtitles on. How does such a serious blunder occur? It seriously detracts from what otherwise might have been a more enjoyable movie.

What fun. An enchanting film. An adult fairy tale and boy meets girl rolled up into one.

Paul's very bad day leads to an unlikely job opening at the prestigious, mysterious company, J Wells. He quickly becomes a favorite of the boss, but no one else on the hiring committee has anything good to say about him. As he proves his metal to both his new coworker and the company at large, we are taking on a fantastic journey. Imaginative sets help create magical scenes.

Christopher Walt makes a great bad guy. The cast includes Sam Neill, who always delivers. I'm sure the primary actors are up and comers, but I'm just not familiar with them from earlier movies.

Enjoy!