Review: Charlotte’s Web

UK release date: 9th February

Author EB White’s classic animal fable gets the full Babe treatment in this warm, live-action family fantasy. Gently introducing younger viewers to the natural cycle of life, it explores how a clever spider called Charlotte (tenderly voiced by Julia Roberts) ingeniously uses her web-spinning talents to save a small pig from the chop.

While originally filmed as an animated feature in 1973, here the tale combines genuine critters and CGI effects, with delightful visual results. Like Charlotte herself, piglet Wilbur is so endearing that you can understand farmer’s daughter Fern (a likeable Dakota Fanning) begging for the runty porker’s life — though sadly the other crass creatures that inhabit Wilbur’s barnyard home don’t share this charm. Voiced by the likes of Robert Redford and Steve Buscemi, their tone-lowering flatulence and constant wisecracking dilutes the story’s central magic, making the finale less poignant than it should have been.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate U

Review by Sloan Freer

News: Julia Roberts

We haven’t seen much of Julia Roberts since 2004’s disappointing Ocean’s Twelve, with this week’s Charlotte’s Web featuring merely her voice as the titular spider, following her earlier voice work on the animated The Ant Bully last year. If you’re a fan of the tabloids you’ll doubtless know why – she gave birth to twins in November 2004, and is currently expecting another child, due in the summer.

Nonetheless, she found time amidst all the pregnancies and childcare to star alongside Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman in what looks set to be a pretty major movie (as if the three stars – with nine Oscar nominations between them – aren’t indication enough…). Charlie Wilson’s War is due out in December in the States, just in time to qualify for the 2008 Oscars, and it’s a pretty likely contender for a slew of big nominations. Directed by the rather good Mike Nichols (with five Oscar nominations under his belt), who directed Roberts in 2004’s Closer, it is based on the true story of Texas Congressman Charles Wilson (Hanks) who, soon after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, was the man who realised that the United States needed to get subtly involved in the conflict. The upshot? The funding of covert CIA operations and training of local tribesmen – including a number of Islamic fundamentalists who would go on to form a little group by the name of Al-Qaeda. Topical, political, and plenty of scope for epic storytelling. It has Oscar written all over it.

The only other film Roberts has in the works is The Friday Night Knitting Club, a rather more low-key affair, based on the novel by Katie Jacobs about a group of women who make friends in a knitting shop in New York. Roberts is the only name currently attached – though whether it will happen now she’s pregnant again is anyone’s guess.