The Witches

by Philip Price

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures/HBO Max

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer & Stanley Tucci 
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour & 46 minutes

Having no affinity for the 1990 adaptation of the 1983 Roald Dahl novel the hope in knowing Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis was going to direct and produce an updated and more faithful-to-the-source material version of the story alongside fellow Best Director winners Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro was that it would prove to be the project that gave Zemeckis his mojo back. Unfortunately, Zemeckis continues to taint his pre-2000 career with this re-imagining rather than restoring any faith that the same man who made “Back to the Future,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Death Becomes Her” is still alive. 
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2020's “The Witches” isn't terrible, this should be noted. If this were made by a less prominent filmmaker and didn't have the precedent of Nicolas Roeg's original adaptation on which to base expectation this would maybe have more a sense of novelty to it, but given the context this largely feels like another excuse for Zemeckis to experiment with his interests in advancing the technical aspects of movie-making rather than tell a fun, entrancing story. Like all Dahl stories, “The Witches” makes no qualms about not softening the blow of life's truths to its young protagonists; forcing them to deal with the challenges hurled in their direction as there is no way of escaping them, but only dealing with them. While this trademark is evident throughout Zemeckis' film the frightening in pursuit of enlightening never feels as fundamental to the DNA of the proceedings as the order in which these events are doled out does. It's as if Zemeckis has replaced the intrinsic DNA of Dahl's characters, world, and circumstances with calculations rather than constructing them in a live-action fashion to better understand what the author was trying to relay ... and while I've only seen the 1990 film once and as an adult, I can say with absolute certainty that film captured the darkly comic shades of Dahl's work far better than this new one. I don't even know if I chuckled at anything here other than Octavia Spencer's sassy Southern grandma.

Speaking of Spencer, if Zemeckis had simply made a film about the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson and how that bond grew and evolved after the death of her daughter and his mother I think we and the director may have all been better off as the first half hour or so prior to any titular characters showing up is wholly charming and natural in a way that makes what follows feel all the more contrived. Spencer is fantastic as always, Anne Hathaway is having a blast, and Stanley Tucci doesn't deserve the GIF that will become of him from his mess of a part. “The Witches” isn't bad enough to cuss out, but it doesn't utilize all its potential to create something as wondrously weird as each individual aspect would suggest it could be. It's dust in the wind, but then again that's what critics said about “Hocus Pocus” in 1993 and we see the juggernaut that has become. So, don't ask me what the destiny of 2020's “The Witches” is, the kids know better.

“The Witches” is streaming on HBO Max.