Kenneth Branagh directs this family-fantasy-by-numbers adapted from Eoin Colfer’s bestselling teen novels
After the film version of Cats, the world agreed that Judi Dench could never, should never do anything as bizarre as her performance as Old Deuteronomy, the bafflingly attired matriarch of the Jellicle cat tribe, wearing a fur coat in addition to her normal fur. But now Dench might actually have topped her feline folly, in this family fantasy adventure, adapted by Conor McPherson and Hamish McColl from Eoin Colfer’s bestselling novels about the teen
Irish hero in touch with magical forces and directed by Kenneth Branagh. She plays someone called Commander Root, who is the security chief of the fairy peoples who live deep underground. (It was a man in the book, but no male
Actor could be gruffer than Dench is here.)
Dench is styling a very notable military-style outfit in emerald green, which makes her look like some forgotten intergalactic villain from
Star Wars. Root has a growly, twangy, slightly Cornish voice; yet it was only when she appeared in full uniform, including a sinister peaked cap, and said “top o’ the morning,” that I said out loud: “Judi Dench is supposed to be Irish!”