We certainly didn’t need another take on Roald Dahl’s 1983 novel “The Witches” after the superlative 1990 screen adaptation from director Nicolas Roeg and screenwriter Allan Scott, but if Robert Zemeckis’ 2020 version doesn’t cast as powerful a spell as its predecessor, neither is it a foul brew.
Collaborating with Kenya Barris on a screenplay originally written by Guillermo del Toro, Zemeckis throws in more good ideas than bad, which is a relief, considering his recent misfires like “Welcome to Marwen” and eye-assaulting CG horrors like “A Christmas Carol” and “The Polar Express.” And in the same way that Angelica Huston grandly (and campily) ruled the roost in Roeg’s film, Anne Hathaway wickedly assumes the throne as queen of her own coven here.
The action unfolds in the American South in the 1960s, with Jahzir Bruno as our unnamed hero, who goes to live with Grandmother (Octavia Spencer) after the death of his parents.
Collaborating with Kenya Barris on a screenplay originally written by Guillermo del Toro, Zemeckis throws in more good ideas than bad, which is a relief, considering his recent misfires like “Welcome to Marwen” and eye-assaulting CG horrors like “A Christmas Carol” and “The Polar Express.” And in the same way that Angelica Huston grandly (and campily) ruled the roost in Roeg’s film, Anne Hathaway wickedly assumes the throne as queen of her own coven here.
The action unfolds in the American South in the 1960s, with Jahzir Bruno as our unnamed hero, who goes to live with Grandmother (Octavia Spencer) after the death of his parents.
- 10/21/2020
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
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