A dark adaptation. far to be awful but not enough for seduce. for adults, it has many good details, from the status of political satire to the references to Christmas and Grinch, reasonable performances and good occasion to discover Sigmund and Albert in not expected context. for children, it is real difficult to say if the film could be useful. because the ambition of director seems chaotic. and the lead desire, after its end, is to read to child the book of Hoffmann. the basic sin of film - it is a Konchalovsky one. and not only the expectation is high but the desire to meet a decent adaptation. sure, 3D and special effects are good points. but not exactly the convincing arguments. for children it is a too dark movie, for adults is far to be the version of the well known tale. it seems a moment of circus. many illusions, no crumb of truth. or emotion. and that is a real sad detail.

Make no bones about it, this movie sucks. It does have some meriting factors--interesting set design and production. And that's pretty much it! Writing, directing and acting: ham-fisted at best. The songs are TERRIBLE, the film's themes are all over the place and forget about any sense of continuity. Inexplicably, the main character's uncle is Albert Einstein who deigns it necessary to sing a dreary diddy about relativity and the rats are Nazis because... who knows?! The biggest disappointment: the stupid looking Nutcracker (who goes by NC!) that looks like an unimaginative Pinocchio. Glad to see this film bombed at the box office, hard.

Even the kids hated it. At end daughter asked if we could put it in the rubbish. I wanted to stop watching by halfway. Holocaust themes, dark and violent for younger children, and lots of rat teeth.To be fair, make-up and costumes were alright plus Elle Fanning is gorgeous and a talented actress but even as the main redeeming feature she was unable to support this holocaust-themed bastardisation of a ballet. Tim Rice may be good at lyrics but the breaks into song were un-natural and whole thing forced, boring and dreary. Composers would be turning in their graves. I truly hope I never watch this again!

I think the reviews posted against this film are definitely too harsh. This is a fantasy film and the special effects, the creativity, the imagination and the characterization are all simply fantastic! This movie may not be a Harry Potter but it is surely a delight for any child and even entertaining enough for an adult. Waiting for the DVD release to pick up a copy for my kid.The film is basically about a young girl whose boring life takes a dramatic turn when her toys come to life! The Nutcracker doll takes her into his own world and she helps him fight the evil Rat King.With a stellar star-cast (award-winning actors like Nathan Lane, John Turturro, Frances De La Tour) and superb acting by the kids (Elle Fanning, Charlie Rowe), directed by Emmy Award winning director Andrei Konchlovsky, and 8 songs by Oscar award winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice, you cannot go wrong with such a great team!