I had been wanting to see this movie for many years, because I quited liked the director's other work and Ebert was positively gushing in his review of it. There are definitely good ideas in it, but it didn't really come together for me. The best part is probably the house itself. It's physically constructed unlike the computer animation they'd use today, but the builders managed to keep the warped perspective of a child's drawing which is really awesome. The lead actress is very good as well, and at age when child actors tend to be very artificial. Glenn Headly, on the other hand, is terrible. I quite like her in most of her other films from What About Bob? to Futureman, but there is zero chemistry between her and the actress playing the girl, and yet surely that should be the key relationship in the film. There are also some story problems. The worst being that there's not enough of it beyond the gimmick. You want to delve more into the relationship between the girl and her father since he is such a frightening aspect in the dream, and yet when he shows up, he's perfectly normal. It's also annoying that after he shows up, the girl's mother disappears from the film completely. So much more could be done with this. I think it would be a great one to remake as a miniseries.
Review of Paperhouse
