It's 1912. Charles Castle (Toby Stephens) loses his new bride (Rachel Shelley) in a snow crevasse in Switzerland. During the war, he works as a war photographer not caring about dying. After the war in London, he takes portraits of people inserting their lost love ones into the pictures and debunks a photo forgery of fairies in front of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's group. Beatrice Templeton brings him photos of her daughters Clara and Ana with fairies. Charles can't find any tampering in the image and decides to find out for himself in the small town of Burkinwell. Beatrice tells him that she had seen the fairies herself but then he finds her dead in the woods. Her husband Reverend Templeton (Ben Kingsley) is much respected. Linda (Emily Woof) is the kids' nanny. The kids eat a flower that allow them into the world of fairies.
It's the feel of a bit of moody light horror at the start. It could have gone that way but it goes more to the magical fantasy. Yet it's not surreal or fanciful. It's a very fascinating unusual mix of tones. Ben Kingsley has the juicier part and plays it very well. The movie climaxes with an interesting fight but then it fades a little. It needs to wrap up a little quicker. That's probably my only minor complaint.
It's the feel of a bit of moody light horror at the start. It could have gone that way but it goes more to the magical fantasy. Yet it's not surreal or fanciful. It's a very fascinating unusual mix of tones. Ben Kingsley has the juicier part and plays it very well. The movie climaxes with an interesting fight but then it fades a little. It needs to wrap up a little quicker. That's probably my only minor complaint.