Movie review: Mr Popper's Penguins

Jim Carrey is a haunted man and if you’re not careful Mr Popper’s Penguins will follow you to your grave. You think I’m joking? You think this is going to be one of those smart-alec reviews delivered with a knowing wink because it’s just a silly kids movie? Go find a cinema showing this, sit down in front of the screen and spend the next 85 minutes staring into Jim Carrey’s eyes and try to come out of the cinema with a reason to live. Good luck.

Carrey hasn’t been making many films lately – the recently released I Love You Phillip Morris was sitting on a shelf since 2009 and the one before that was the all-CGI Christmas Carol, making his last mainstream comedy 2008’s Yes Man – but whatever it is he had that made him a star, he’s still got it. Mr Popper’s Penguins doesn’t want him using all that much of it because it’s a kids’ movie about adorable CGI penguins, not a rubber-faced loon who gives off a palpable sense of menace. But it’s still there. Only now it’s brought the Devil along for the ride.

The story begins with Popper growing up listening to his explorer dad on ham radio as he tours the world giving his son the gift of emotional distance. It’s a gift that comes in handy 30 years later when he lurches on screen with a divorced wife and two kids who supposedly like him but don’t want to spend any actual time alone with him. Suits him fine, he’s busy being the sleaziest real estate developer ever. This is meant to be a kids’ movie, right?

While most Park Avenue zillionaires would have those penguins served as sushi at their next cocktail party, Popper keeps them to impress his estranged wife (Carla Gugino) and kids, and even turns his swanky apartment into a glacial winter wonderland. That thaws out his icy heart but it also endangers the biggest deal of his career; to prise a prized Central Park property from a wealthy baroness (Angela Lansbury).

For some unknown reason, director Mark Waters (Mean Girls) has changed the book's plot, where Popper teaches the penguins to dance and takes them on the road. That sounds like much more fun than seeing Carrey in middling middle-aged mode and the penguins as his mildly amusing house guests.

And that raises an interesting point; who is the star of the show here? On the one hand, Carrey shelves much of his manic gifts to let the penguins take centre stage and bring the funny. On the other hand, the penguins (a fairly seamless mix of real Gentoos and computer wizardry) are a rather bland group of waddlers, presented as much as pests as lovable, funny furry friends.

So why put Carrey in a kids' comedy and NOT let him rip? Why put in penguins and not make them adorable, rambunctious and flat-out funny? Either one would be preferable to both being the bland caricatures they are here. That said, there is a neat scene at New York's Guggenheim Museum where the penguins slide down the spiral gallery on their tummies. And as Mr Popper's alliteration-addicted assistant Pippi, the comically named Ophelia Lovibond almost steals the show. Well, she could have - no one else puts up much of a fight.