Genre: Comedy/Family
Director: Michael Lembeck
Cast: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ashley Judd, Julie Andrews, Billy Crystal, Chase Ellison, Stephen Merchant, Ryan Sheckler, Brandon T. Jackson
RunTime: 1 hr 42 mins
Rating: PG
Official Website: http://www.toothfairy-movie.com/

Opening Day: 21 January 2010

Synopsis:

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is "The Tooth Fairy," also known as Derek Thompson, a hard-charging minor league hockey player whose nickname comes from his habit of separating opposing players from their bicuspids. When Derek discourages a youngster's hopes, he's sentenced to one week's hard labor as a real tooth fairy, complete with the requisite tutu, wings and magic wand. At first, Derek "can't handle the tooth" - bumbling and stumbling as he tries to furtively wing his way through strangers' homes... doing what tooth fairies do. But as Derek slowly adapts to his new position, he begins to rediscover his own forgotten dreams.

Movie Review:

Dwayne Johnson's cinematic career can be split into two broad categories, that of playing the alpha male action hero, or that of the arrogant sportsman who finds himself having to deal with kids. He has great comic timing as seen in films like Get Smart, The Game Plan and even Be Cool (in an effeminate role!), yet can deliver some serious dramatic acting chops when called upon, such as in Gridiron Gang.

No doubt one of the more fortunate WWE superstars who had successfully crossed over to Hollywood, Tooth Fairy continues in his traditional role of a sportsman who has to forcefully convince himself to play along with children's fantasy and to support their dreams, not to crush them with insensitive remarks based on his grown up experiences in the real world. And of course to do so in order to break the 'curse' set upon him by, well, real tooth fairies led by Julie Andrew's head fairy Lily, and assisted by a personal assistant of sorts in Tracy (Stephen Merchant) who has the best banter in the entire film opposite Johnson's minor league hockey player Derek Thompson as they delve into some rapid fire puns at every opportunity.

The story by Jim Piddock also became like an instructional 101 guidebook for tooth fairy wannabes, and to enjoy this, yep, you have to become like a kid yourself since the antics of the sceptic like Derek forms the narrative structure in our accompanying him on his one week tooth fairy duty, which will activate his services at any time, followed by a rather embarrassing sprouting of his full-fledged, fluffy fairy wings. The tools of the trade that you see in the trailers will each take on one tooth fetching adventure to hilarious effect, though the equipping of Derek by an almost unrecognizable Billy Crystal has to be one of the best scenes in the film that will likely leave you in stitches and begging for more.

Dwayne Johnson's charisma is what made Tooth Fairy bearable to sit through, even if he has to put on a tight little pink tutu in order to bring on some laughter, and for you to sympathize with the plight of one macho man's gripe with having to pay ridiculous penance for his disbelief in airy-fairy tales and the constant bursting of children's bubbles when they rub him the wrong way. This also happens to be quite the male-centric movie with male characters given a lot more say than the female ones that both Julie Andrews and Ashley Judd play, though at its core it's still a film that's targeted at the kids, and adults will find themselves always one step ahead with what's going to happen next.

However, Tooth Fairy still took me by surprise in being a lot more sprightly than the trailers have made it out to be, and Dwayne Johnson once again shows why he's adept at starring in family friendly comedies reinforcing positive lessons, repetitive messages and themes without being too goofy while at it, nor trying too hard.

Movie Rating:



(Still worth a token under the pillow thanks to Dwayne Johnson's screen presence)

Review by Stefan Shih