The Portable Door (2023)

The Portable Door (2023)

 

3/10

 

Starring

Patrick Gibson

Sophie Wilde

Sam Neill

Christoph Waltz

 

Directed by Jeffrey Walker

 

You can tell when something is not well adapted. I have not read the book this movie is based on named J.W. Wells & Co. series – The Portable Door, but from the way the movie seems to just glaze over many things you can tell there’s just many things missing. Maybe the problem itself is from the book, I will not know because this movie was not inviting enough to make me want to read the book.

The movie failed in so many ways to align many of the things we are supposed to know from the odd narrations to the things we see. This lack of joining made this movie boring. Then the non-explanation of the magic system and a full view of the world in which this system dwells makes you guess why this is this and put two and two together yourself. In the end the movie did not bother to address these things, like the goblins, the difference between the lead’s powers and how come they have such powers (I am sure you may guess some humans do and others don’t) but it is glazed over, and we are left alone. I guess the movie makers were hoping this will generate many cravings to want to see a second part of this series. Instead, I found myself asking, what better things I could have done with my time instead of wasting it to see this movie.

To movie is about Paul Carpenter a man who is finding it hard to keep his life together. He goes for an interview and while on the queue to be received he is distracted by a man who claims to be his old teacher, then a dog and a run finds him in the J.W. Wells company sitting for an interview he did not know he was entered for.

He gets the job and soon finds out that the company functions behind the scenes of humans, we do not get to see glimpses of this, all we see is them making two people meet one another.

Paul is paired with Sophie who is a seer and can read people’s minds. Paul, we find out is a diviner who can find things or a way out of things.

The two are separated with Sophie being given other tasks while Paul is given a secret task to locate a Portable Door. We get to see how Sophie goes through a lot of personality change and Paul soon discover how to use his powers. Soon we discover a deep secret of the Wells and how everything we see is not as smooth sailing as they appear.