Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- “Inkheart,” based on Cornelia Funke’s best-selling book, is a fantastical family film about a father and daughter who can make book characters come alive. Effortlessly making you suspend disbelief, the film celebrates the power of story-telling.

It begins with the baritone voice of an omniscient narrator explaining the tale’s background. Mortimer “Mo” Folchart (Brendan Fraser) has a special way with the written word. When he reads aloud from a book, a character from the story somehow pops into the real world, while some unfortunate human is sucked into story-land.

Mo can’t control who falls into the fantasy world. One night long ago, he lost his own wife to the mystical realm of “Inkheart,” while reading to their young daughter. In exchange, the evil “Capricorn” (Andy Serkis) and his gang of disfigured thugs joined our world while Mo was left alone to raise Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett).

Flash-forward nine years, and Meggie is now a voracious 12- year-old reader. Mo carts her around with him as he travels from bookstore to bookstore searching for a copy of the lost “Inkheart,” hoping to one day bring back his wife. He finally finds it in a mysterious shop, but trouble arrives in the form of a flame-throwing wanderer (Paul Bettany) -- a former Inkheart denizen desperate to get home.

Power Girl

We soon find that Meggie shares her father’s powers. Capricorn kidnaps her, shuttling her off to his crazy castle full of flying monkeys and other cretins. Help arrives from Meggie’s book-loving Aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren) and the fictional “Inkheart” author Fenoglio (Jim Broadbent). The group struggles to keep Capricorn from bringing “The Shadow” to wreak havoc on the real world.

It’s a wonderful cast and everyone shines, especially the beautiful Bennett.

At a time when many of us could use a good dose of escapism, it will be a shame if this film flies under the radar.

“Inkheart,” from Warner Bros. Pictures, opens today across the U.S. Rating: ***

‘Donkey Punch’

“Donkey Punch” is a low-budget British film about the extreme lengths to which people will go in the name of self- preservation. Well, that’s the G-rated way of summing up this B- movie whose title refers to a violent sexual act.

Three girls pop over to Mallorca from the U.K. for a boozy, drug-addled weekend. Tammi (Nichola Burley) has just dumped her cheating boyfriend; Kim (Jaime Winstone) and Lisa (Sian Breckin) are party girls determined to cheer her up. The moment they arrive, they don skimpy dancing clothes, start swigging vodka from the bottle and bar-hopping.

Soon, they meet a trio of young yacht crewmen with access to a vessel for the night. Then comes the “uh-oh” moment: One of the boys, Bluey (Tom Burke), decides to kick things up a notch, offering the group pills and something called “Russian Ice.”

What follows is a downward spiral that includes throwing bodies overboard, several escape attempts, knifings, inhuman intimidation, and a lot of crying.

The tale is so ridiculous that, I’m embarrassed to admit, it’s somewhat entertaining. Director and co-writer Olly Blackburn seems to believe that people faced with the prospect of murder charges and ruined futures are prone to commit the most disturbing acts. We should hope never to find out if he’s right.

“Donkey Punch,” from First Run Features, opens today in New York and Los Angeles. Rating: *1/2

(Morgan Grice is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Morgan Grice at mgrice@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 23, 2009 00:01 EST