Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
BFG took me to see Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium last night–and i gotta say it was pretty heady stuff for a story about a magical toy store–
in the story, you have an eccentric 243-year old toy store owner, mr magorium, (dustin hoffman), his protege, molly mahoney (natalie portman), an accountant, ‘mutant’ (jason bateman), and a 9 year old who is mature beyond his years, ‘eric’ (zach mills).
a quick plot summary: Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is a magic toy store and everything in it comes to life – including the store itself. when magorium knows his life is at an end, he gets ready to hand the store over to his protege, mahoney, and the store throws a temper tantrum.
essentially, the story is about knowing yourself, believing in your gifts and reaching out to others to share them. full of silly jokes, quips and plenty of pratfalls, the movie appeals to all age groups. it’s a story about the wonder of life, the reality and inevitability of death and the clash of those two worlds colliding.
taken too far, ‘believe in yourself’ leads to narcissism–but, this story provides the right balance, going so far as to acknowledge God’s person. henry points out that magorium has the king of planet Yahweh on his payroll–and magorium corrects an assumption by stating his belief that the king of Yahweh is definitely not fictional. (although there are a couple places where the name of the Lord is used in vain…)
since God has created each of us with talent, gifting and drive to serve Him, under that umbrella, to ‘believe in yourself’ is to be confident in His purpose for us…and to act on that confidence.
M. Magoriums Wonder Emporium–a likeable movie, clean, rated G, running 1 hr 34 mins. take the kids? yes. talk about it? definitely.