Inkheart (PG)

This epic fantasy is trying to put its foot in the family-entertainment door while Harry Potter isn't looking.

Brendan Fraser plays Mo, gifted as a "silvertongue" who can summon characters from books by reading them aloud. His power has put him at odds with two characters from a long-forgotten novel, Inkheart: Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), who wants to return to his fictional home, and Capricorn (Andy Serkis), who has darker plans to exploit Mo and his 12-year-old daughter (Eliza Bennett), another silvertongue. Adapted from the best-selling novel by Cornelia Funke, this makes a splashy fuss about "the magic of books", and yet undermines our imaginative instincts by monstering the screen with special effects. Helen Mirren as an imperious great aunt and Jim Broadbent as the novel's author (looking alarmingly like Mrs Doubtfire) provide Brit-thesp "colour" for the adults, while a kid from the Arabian Nights and Toto from The Wizard of Oz pop up to please the kids. A dog's dinner.