The Dust Factory (2004)

Director: Eric Small
Writer: Eric Small
Cast: Hayden Panettiere, Ryan Kelley, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Kim Myers
Genre: Family, Drama, Fantasy

The Dust Factory is an imaginary fantasy vision aimed for the entire family, and works on some levels. My problem is the childish and simple combined with such a multi-layered backdrop. It just seems to hit well above its main target audience, while not managing to be interesting enough for the part of the audience who misses out on its layers.

Often you'll award movies managing to take different levels and melt into an entertaining product. Here I'll have to rather punish their attempt for their failure on making a movie with larger ambition than usual. It's in the end both too childish and too grown-up, without ever coming close of nailing either category.