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The Golden Compass PG SCREENINGS Twelve year-old Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) lives an extraordinary life as a ward of distinguished Jordan College. Tearing through the streets, unsupervised, on mad quests for adventure with her loyal friend Roger (Ben Walker), Lyra is accompanied everywhere by her daemon, Pantalaimon (voiced by Freddie Highmore), who appears as a small, ever-changing animal that serves as a constant voice of reason. But Lyra’s world is changing. Her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), is embarking on a trip to the Arctic Circle to investigate a mysterious element intriguingly called Dust, but the Magisterium would go to any lengths, including shutting down Jordan College, to stop him. At the same time, rumours of children mysteriously disappearing and being taken north by the “Gobblers” become terrifyingly real when her best friend Roger goes missing. Lyra swears to go to the ends of the earth to rescue him, and when a new figure appears at the college, Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), a beguiling scientist and world traveller, she sees her best chance to get away. But Lyra finds that she has been drawn into a trap designed to take from her the one thing she possesses that the Magisterium desperately seeks, an alethiometer - the Golden Compass. Given to her as a gift by the Master of Jordan College (Jack Shepherd), it is a mystical, powerful device that can tell the truth, reveal what others wish to hide and foreshadow and even change the future. At that moment, Lyra realizes that she will have to break away from Mrs Coulter and embark on her own journey to rescue Roger and stop the Magisterium. But fate puts her in the company and protection of a tribe of seafaring Gyptians led by Lord Faa (Jim Carter), Ma Costa (Clare Higgins) and Farder Coram (Tom Courtenay). Banding together an unlikely alliance with the Gyptians, the mysterious witch Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green) and Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), Lyra is flung into an adventure that will take her over sky and ocean, to the wilds of the icy north, where she gains a powerful ally in a great armoured bear named Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), who pledges to serve her in her campaign until she prevails. A great war is coming, one that threatens not only Lyra’s world but all the parallel worlds waiting just beyond the northern lights. With her band of friends and allies, and the power of the Golden Compass, Lyra will need all her skill and courage, to stop it. BBFC Advice: Contains moderate fantasy violence and intense scenes " ... Visually the film is stupendous, with director Chris Weitz, production designer Dennis Gassner and the art department creating a parallel universe, with a subtly different Oxford and a radically different London. The casting of newcomer Dakota Blue Richards is perfect. Lyra Belacqua, the young heroine, is by turns surly, stubborn, brave and quick-thinking." "... The crowded imaginary universe of The Golden Compass takes some getting used to, and in some ways, as a non-follower of the Pullman books, I have still to be entirely sold on it. But it certainly looks wonderful, with epic dash and a terrific central performance from Nicole Kidman, who may come to dominate our children's nightmares the way Robert Helpmann's Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang once did ours..." UK RELEASE 5 December 2007 DIRECTOR Chris Weitz CAST Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Eva Green, Ian McKellen (voice of Iorek Byrnison), Jim Carter, Tom Courtenay, Sam Elliott, Ben Walker, Freddie Highmore (voice of Pantalaimon) RUNNING TIME 113 minutes COUNTRY USA / UK official film website
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