Cast: Jessica Lynn Cohen, Macaulay Culkin, Darci Kistler, Gen Horiuchi, Wendy Whelan
Narrator: Kevin Kline
Choreography: George Balanchine
Director: Emile Ardolino
Producers: Robert A. Krasnow and Robert Hurwitz
Staging: Peter Martins
Cinematography: Ralf D. Bode
Music: Peter Tchaikovsky
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
On stage, The Nutcracker is marvelous entertainment, despite the $30-plus price of a ticket. As a movie, a great deal of the exuberance is washed away, leaving behind a pale shell of the live production. Those seeing the story in person experience a spectacle; those who settle for the inside of a darkened theater are presented with a two-dimensional sample of culture.
For those not familiar with the story, The Nutcracker presents the magical, dreamlike Christmas Eve of a little girl named Marie (Jessica Lynn Cohen), who is escorted through various wondrous realms by a prince (Macaulay Culkin), culminating in a grand gala in the Hall of the Sugarplum Fairy (Darci Kistler). There is a great deal of dancing, some of it spectacular, with everything unfolding to the strains of Tchaikovsky's unparalleled score.
The main problem with the movie is that it opts to present a relatively mundane version of the stage production. Utilizing almost none of the advantages offered by the medium, The Nutcracker stumbles when it should soar. Since there's no way for a motion picture to capture the feeling of watching a live performance, this presentation should offer something that transcends the stage's boundaries. It doesn't, and therein lies The Nutcracker's chief flaw.
The pacing is uneven, with the first half of the film moving like molasses. A change for the better occurs when the setting shifts to the Hall of the Sugarplum Fairy. Even given the confines of the screen, The Nutcracker bursts to life at this point.
Director Emile Ardolino (Dirty Dancing, Sister Act) leaves behind The Nutcracker as his final motion picture -- he died of AIDS at the age of 50. Unfortunately, this is not his best work. The direction is rarely inspired, and there are numerous occasions when the camerawork lets down the audience by choosing an ill-advised closeup instead of a wide-angle shot. Ardolino's attempts to breathe life into this screen version don't always succeed.
The cast, mostly comprised of members of the New York City Ballet, is excellent...with one important exception: Macaulay Culkin. Included more for his name than anything else, Culkin is barely adequate, and the annoying smirk he wears makes his presence progressively less bearable. Jessica Lynn Cohen, on the other hand, gives a tremendously-appealing portrayal of Marie.
The saving grace of this screen adaptation of The Nutcracker is that the source material is so good that it can survive even a flat interpretation. However, with a little more verve and imagination, this Nutcracker could have become an all-time classic holiday film. Instead, it's just another motion picture opening on Thanksgiving weekend of 1993.
© 1993 James Berardinelli