Elijah Wood
Performer for Our Time
Huck Finn
(1993)
Review
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Elijah Wood Performer for Our Time Huck Finn Review |
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Huck Finn (1993) |
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Edward C. Patterson, site owner |
A+
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From the first opening Clemensian Voice Over and the whimsical fight scene, Huck Finn brims with authenticity and focus. Sure, we’ve read the book and seen the many movie versions. But this one stands tall and comes to grips with Twain’s not-so-juvenile hero as he grows along the river of life. Great allegory sublimates its symbols, so you take it like heroin, directly in the vein. And so it is with this film with a strong crop of performances and a sterling rendition by its star, Elijah Wood. The spirit of any great literary masterpiece translated to film is not the details a la BBC and Masterpiece Theater, but the distillation of ideas and moods into enduring messages and iconic scenes. Huck Finn is Elijah Wood’s first foray into the literary character venue, a venue that would eventually lead him to Frodo Baggins. He does not approach the role as "the lost child on the river," but as a growing cock-sure adolescent, more adult and intelligent for his age and station. His performance is rock solid, never flagging. He provides a variety of moods and is always maintaining a consistent arc with the material. No empty headed river rat here. Courtney Vance teams with Wood to make a most Twainly Jim. Jim is not the typical slave—he’s literary and allegorical. His pain is real, but never obfuscating the themes of the novel; and so it blossoms in the film. Jason Robards Jr and Robbie Coltrane impress as the infamous scoundrels that represent American hypocrisy, while Ron Perlman charges the role as Papp Finn with rugged villainy emblazoned on the ass of white river trash. Anne Heche subtly wisps through as Mary Jane Wilks. But it is Elijah Wood that naturally carries the film. Twain would have been proud to see his creation in the hands of this veteran actor. Huck Finn keeps us laughing, almost weeping and gets us to think about the same things the original work got America to think about—so, much so as to get the book banned throughout the South. People "be a-feared ‘bout der truth!" But still, the truth is delivered through the antics and wisdom of a babe who finds his own faults forgiving and the world’s most tolerable if taken with a "stretcher" or two. To this reviewer, Elijah Wood’s portrayal of Huck Finn is definitive and this version of the novel, then in its centenary, is destined to become a classic. A+ |