The Wizard

The Wizard follows Fred Savage’s Corey as he and his emotionally-troubled younger brother (Luke Edwards’ Jimmy) team up with a scrappy runaway (Jenny Lewis’ Haley) and embark on a road trip to a lucrative video game championship, with the narrative detailing the various problems and complications that inevitably ensue along the way (including the ongoing presence of a sleazy child bounty hunter). Filmmaker Todd Holland has infused The Wizard with a very deliberate, very gentle sort of feel that mostly works, as the director, working from David Chisholm’s screenplay, delivers a familiar yet engaging narrative that benefits substantially from the leads’ uniformly compelling efforts – with Savage’s strong performance matched by an eclectic supporting cast that includes Beau Bridges and Christian Slater. The movie’s episodic structure paves the way for a somewhat hit-and-miss midsection, to be sure, and there’s little doubt that the picture’s affiliation with Nintendo does result in more than a few awkwardly-placed promotional sequences (eg the now-infamous Power Glove scene). And although the climax suffers from a similarly propaganda-like feel, The Wizard admittedly concludes on a simultaneously exciting and heartwarming note that confirms its place as a perfectly watchable family picture.

*** out of ****