She’s so pretty, yet unassuming. Just what a director might want in a co-star to a ham like Eddie Murphy: someone who catches your eye, makes you wonder how much she would shine in a better film.
We’re not talking about Yara Shahidi, the impressive newcomer who plays money manager Evan Danielson’s 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, in the middling family comedy “Imagine That.” She’s the real deal — darling but not too.
So who, then? Why, Denver.
“Imagine That” is set and was partially shot in the Mile High City. Small wonder the film commission and local filmmakers and crews continue to push for tax incentives. Our town looks good in this story about a dad whose fortunes change when he enters his neglected daughter’s imaginary world.
Her portal to that realm of princesses and a queen with an unerring grasp of market forces is a blanket she calls her “Goo-gaa.”
Financial whiz Evan (Murphy) is being given a run for his money at his firm by new guy Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church).
His hair is long, his pitch polished like the silver on a squash- blossom necklace from a roadside stand. From the start, Whitefeather seems like a huckster of Native American spirituality. It’s hard to believe any client or boss would fall for it. But tumble they do. Chant they do.
As Evan and Johnny’s competition heats up, the career-obsessed dad is finally being forced to act like a father.
He and wife Trish (Nicole Ari Parker) are separated.
DeRay Davis is sweet as Evan’s friend/client and a former Bronco who embraces his daddy duties with aplomb. Parker, who often finds an emotional foothold even in slippery comedies, doesn’t have a lot to do as Trish. But she expresses frustration without falling back on antagonism.
Kid-marketed movies too often seem pitched to the so-called grown-ups in the multiplex. They wink, they nudge. “Imagine That” raises questions about its true target audience, but for a different reason. It’s not that the jokes are aimed at adults. The lessons are.
It’s a fable about fatherhood directed toward boneheaded, value- confused pops.
Unfortunately, Evan’s transformation rings tinny. The music guides us to the appropriate moods (This is magical! This is goofy!), because Murphy’s performance doesn’t.
The most satisfying laugh may be a scene between the money manager and Nuggets stars Carmelo Anthony and some guy we traded for beloved Chauncey Billups.
Where was the Goo-gaa when the filmmakers were thinking up that scene?
“IMAGINE THAT”
PG for some mild language and brief questionable behavior. 1 hour, 47 minutes. Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick; written by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson; photography by John Lindley; starring Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Yara Shahidi, Nicole Ari Parker, Ronny Cox and Martin Sheen. Opens today at area theaters.
