Potterish wacthes “Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?”, starring Bonnie Wright

We had the pleasure to watche the film “Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?” exclusively in press, starring Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), and now we bring to you our review of the motion picture, written by our Head of Translations and Cinema student Marina Anderi.

“It’s certainly hard to do a kid’s movie. It’s necessary to have an interesting plot, as all movies need to, balanced with a childish humor. The problem is that, obviously, kid’s movies are directed by adults and adults tend to see children as one-dimensional, making the movie turn silly and full of gags which don’t work. Fortunately, that’s not what happens here on this movie by Tim Clague and Danny Stack.”

Read the review and let us know your thoughts about the movie!

In a summer camp, four kids consider themselves too grown up to take part in the camp’s activities, mainly the ones involving its “owner”, a (human disguised as) squirrel called Nelson. However, when the oldest of the group decides to go to an adult party and is expelled from there, she sees Nelson falling out of a cliff and being burned afterwards. A mystery, then, is fallen upon the group: who killed Nelson?

It’s certainly hard to do a kid’s movie. It’s necessary to have an interesting plot, as all movies need to, balanced with a childish humor. The problem is that, obviously, kid’s movies are directed by adults and adults tend to see children as one-dimensional, making the movie turn silly and full of gags which don’t work. Fortunately, that’s not what happens here on this movie by Tim Clague and Danny Stack.

There’s a clear establishment of the children’s personalities and they’re not treated as idiots. Seeing as the narratives keeps up with them at all times, it can be said that they’re not judged by the investigation they’re planning to do nor is it taken as silly. It’s important for them, therefore it must be seen as important by the viewer.

It’s by betting on the children’s strength and on the phase which they’re going through that the movie really hits the jackpot. It deals with that phase before the teen years where one is not taken seriously, but takes oneself seriously, at the same time that one still bears childhood innocence and tries to deny it.

It’s funny, then, that the ridiculous ones in the movie are the grownups. Not because they’re specifically fools, but because they’re seen by the kids the same way they’re seem by them: as obstacles. Bonnie Wright’s character, Diane, doesn’t have moments of cruelty, except in her introduction, which seems more a personification of how a child sees an unknown adult in a position of power than who she really is. Her acting justifies well what is discovered by the end of the movie.

It is, ultimately, an entertaining movie. You cheer for its main characters. The scene where they interview another camp’s guests, filming it like an interrogatory, is quite funny and sums to the movie by presenting another children who stay there, besides being a great satire of ant generic detective movie.

With all the charisma of the whole cast, highlighting especially The Colonel (Hattie Gotobeg) – a character whom does what she wants independent of social patterns –, it’s a great family movie. And a great movie as an analysis of the transition from childhood to adulthood.