THE GOLDEN COMPASS/ WEIRD WORLD

Let’s start with the simple plot: 12 year girl is chosen from 10,000 hopefuls and film makes millions.

Oops! Doesn’t sound so simple to you? You're probably right.

Even the actual film plot is eerie: that 12 year old, Lyra, hits the road to rescue her best friend Roger who has mysteriously disappeared.

And little Lyra does run into troubles, since she starts out from an alternate world which, thought much like our own, lumbers everyone with a “daemon”, an animal representation of their soul, and Roger has not be taken by conventional people who strange shadows called Gobblers. Not a nice name and not nice people.

Even before she begins her journey, she has to escape the all mighty presence of a mercurial Nicole Kidman, who is actually one of the chief Gobblers, and no sooner is she underway than she is mixing with giant bears who like to tear each other to shreds.

Thank goodness the poor lass has been given a trusty Alethiometer, a unique instrumentcapable of telling the truth from lies and fiction, to help her, if only she could read it

But Lyra’s ups and downs are nothing compared to the controversy stirred up the theme of the story: an anti God and / or Catholic Church message which critics claim its an attempt to indoctrinate children with a dangerous scepticism towards all authority.

See! That is why is is comforting to stick with the action only.

A few other home truths you can count on as opposed to the heated hearsay, cum heresy. The Golden Compass cost something over £100 million and is based upon Northern Lights, the first novel in a trilogy, His Dark Materials, by avowed atheist Philip Pullman.

Lyra is played by 12 year old debutante Dakota Blue Richards, who was chosen from a mere 10,000 other young girls who auditioned.

Nicole Kidman plays the villaness Marisa Coulter, a role she accepted despite its negative personality following a personal letter from writer Pullman himself. Wonder what he said? It will do you good to be bad for a change?

On a more positive note, Daniel Craig assumes a James Bond attitude as Lord Asriel, Lyra's ruthless and mysterious adventurer uncle.

Other Brits in the scuffle are Ian McKellan and Ian McShane, both contributing their voices to armoured bears.

The Golden Compass opens Wednesday - yes, Wednesday - December 5th, 2007.

Filed November 26, 2007.