Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium Review

I went into Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium thinking it was 100% aimed at children.  However, after just finishing the film, I really believe this movie has a message for adults and might even mean more to adults then to young ones.  

The movie is about a man who owns a strange, somewhat magical, toy store.  Mr. Magorium has been running the store for something like 113 years... and he says he is 243.  His story is full of unbelievable goodies and toys which can only be explained by one word - Magic. However, from the very start of the story we see that Mr. Magorium is getting ready for some kind of change.  He hires an accountant for the first time in, well, 243 years.  The store seems to be preparing for a change also, as part of the wall starts slowly turning black.

Then there is his employee, Molly Mahoney, who worked for him for years.  She accepts the magic of the store as commonplace and comes to work every day happy but sad at the same time.  You see, Molly always wished to fulfill her potential and become a great pianist.  Now she still plays everyday, but she hasn't gotten anywhere with it and still plays the same songs.  She's stuck.

What will Molly do when she finds out that Mr. Magorium plans to pass the store down to her?  And what will the magical store do when it finds out??  

Dustin Hoffman plays Mr. Magorium, an eccentric man of 243 years old.  He seems to enjoy life, enjoy his store, and enjoy just everything about everything.  Even when Molly is upset about her life, she can't help but smile with him around.  He's every kids best friend and the perfect person for the part.  Kids will probably enjoy his silliness as well as his magic.  Natalie Portman plays Molly and I didn't like her hair one bit but I liked her character.  She was a sweet girl who wanted more out of life than just being a store clerk, even if she worked at a magical place.  As she tried to find her self, her character learns a lot of lessons that would be something adults need to learn as well.  I don't want to ruin them for you :)  But it does seem the lessons were aimed at adults, not children.  

Jason Bateman plays the accountant.  He's the person that doesn't believe in magic and is even a bit cynical.  His character balances out the others well and also leads to more lessons in the film.  Finally, Zach Mills plays a little boy who has no friends.  He hangs out at the store all day every day and his only companion is Molly.  He is a smart boy and actually smarter than some of the adults in this film.  At points, it was him that was teaching the lessons.

The store was magical but not overly magical.  Instead of having things being extremely unbelievable, they were more like just a little bit magical.  There were, of course, parts that were pure magic, such as the magic book that had everything in it.  However a lot of it were things that might not appear magic to the passerby unless they really took the time to see what was going on.  This is why it was possible for the accountant to work there every day and still not believe in magic.  

Overall I thought this was a cute and sweet movie.  Children will like the film for the magic but they might not really be sucked in to the overall plot following Molly.  Adults might think it's a kid movie at first but will soon see that the overall lessons are aimed at the older crowd.  Check it out, you just might learn something :)