Dir. Edourad Nammour, UK, 2004, 91 mins
Cast: Yasmin Paige, Sally Phillips, Harry Enfield, Jerry Hall, Stephen Fry
Many successful directors have come from the world of advertising. Big names such as Alan Parker, Adrian Lyne and Ridley Scott have all cut their directorial teeth on commercials. First timer director Edouard Nammour (who also wrote the film), comes from a similar background but he fails to really display the same effective vision as the aforementioned names.
Nammour's Tooth, is a capricious fantasy centring on a hip and wingless tooth fairy (Paige) who relies on James Bond style gadgetry in order to complete her missions. In a fit of ill-conceived generosity, she leaves the entire fairy cash reserves at the home of a financially struggling family. However when she is ordered to retrieve the cash she finds herself pursued by the evil fairy hunter Plug (Enfield).
Enfield plays the villain in a manner that suggests that he doesn't really know how to handle the role. Not scary enough to be truly menacing or funny enough to be an amusing 'boo-able' screen villain, he leaves little to no impression. What the film needs is the 'Child Catcher' from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, what Enfield delivers is an unfunny variation of his 'Loadsmoney' character.
The film piles on celebrity cameos with contributions from Richard E. Grant, Jerry Hall and Vinnie Jones to name a few. The problem with these cameos is that they really don't amount to much aside from making the film feel like a low budget Harry Potter. Many of the scenes feel unrelated, as if they where scripted at the last moment in order to shoehorn in a celebrity cast member. In fact many of the big names seem to just illogically disappear, as if they left the shoot in order to go on to a better job. A big build up prepares us for the arrival of Stephen Fry who then delivers two lines, never to be seen again. Vinnie Jones is part of a footballing in-joke but can anybody amongst the films target audience remember that he started off as a footballer before becoming a Hollywood henchman? Indeed has anybody amongst the target audience seen the 18 rated films that Jones has appeared in? None of the cameos work because they don't make any sense within the plot. The actors seem to be there simply as names for the films poster.
Jim Broadbent voices a giant rabbit who is in charge of 'fairy operations' but is given little to do and afforded no decent lines. He doesn't even sound like Jim Broadbent which makes his casting seemingly pointless, unless he is there just for the sake of having another big name in the film.
The film suffers from a distinctly low budget feel that, given its fantastical setting and situations, it really shouldn't have. A battle between the forces of evil and an army of magical fairies amounts to a run-around in a disused aircraft hanger and when the fairies take flight, you can practically see the wires.
The film has a peculiar geographical feel with the some of the cast such as Sally Philips affecting an American accent, yet talk of tooth fairies leaving pounds and pence under pillows. Almost everybody else speaks with English accents bar Tooth herself. It soon becomes grating on the ear and more than a little confusing as clipped English tones refer to shopping malls and other American terms. The layout of the town where the first half of the narrative takes place however is very much American in design but every other location looks English.
Although it can perhaps be argued that this lends the film the feel of a fantasy location (a sort of 'Anytown' if you like), it seems more likely the producers pandering to American financiers.
A good idea, poorly handled, the film does try to present a nice message regarding family values and the importance of magic over cynicism but this gets rather lost in the breakneck pace of the film.
Although an attempt is made to marry elements from both Spy Kids and Harry Potter, Tooth fails to conjure up the magic of either.
Jonathan Wilkins
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