“Inkheart” looks tempting on paper.  Mortimer Folchart (Brendan Fraser) is a Silvertongue.  He can read things in books and they come to life.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize this when he reads a book called “Inkheart”.  There’s like fifty bad guys, and Folchart pulls them all out.  He also pulls out the hero Dustfinger (Paul Bettany).  Another downside of this ability is that someone in the Silvertongue’s room has to go into the book to compensate for whatever’s been lost.  Folchart’s wife is sacrificed.  Twelve years pass. 

        Folchart and his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett) find another copy of the book early in the story, and we go from there.  Dustfinger desperately wants to go back in the book.  The bad guys desperately want to stay out.  Folchart hasn’t read aloud since he lost his wife, so he’s not quite sure what he should do.  He and Meggie get captured by the bad guys, led by Capricorn (Andy Serkis).  They want to use him to read out things like the treasure from “Ali Baba”.  

        The most intriguing aspect of “Inkheart” is the concept of the Silvertongue gift itself.  Can Folchart just write something and read it and make it happen (“he read his wife out of ‘Inkheart’”)?  Can he just read his grocery list and save himself a trip to the store?  And the really cynical one:  Can he just read out a much prettier girl to replace his wife?  Thinking about these questions is more intriguing than anything onscreen. 

        Sadly, the film doesn’t have as much fun with its premise as one would hope.  The things brought out of the books usually turn out to be ugly special effects.  Academy Award winners Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent show up in small parts, but neither add much to the story.  Perhaps most distracting is that the rules of the Silvertongue keep changing depending on how the plot wants to use it. 

        “Inkheart” doesn’t know what to do with its own good idea.  The premise presents all kind of interesting possibilities, but the one that director Iain Softley chooses to explore is a disappointingly straightforward adventure.