FairyTale -- A True Story

Harvey Keitel playing Harry Houdini says, "Children expect nothing, and therefore see everything." It's doubtful, though, that the children at my screening saw much of Fairy Tale -- they turned the theater into Romper Room. So leave the little ones home and enjoy this delightful "true story" of two girls, one saddened by the loss of her brother and one worrying about her father fighting in World War I, who seek comfort from the fairies living in their backyard. Their photographs of these fairies spark a national debate in England when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle prints them in his magazine. Conan Doyle (Peter O'Toole), whose son died of illness, embraces the fairies' existence as a way of coping with his loss. And so do the throngs of people who rush to the girls' backyard. Yet their search manifests itself as pathetic greed and drives the fairies away.

In brief debates with Conan Doyle, Houdini doubts the photos' authenticity while understanding how important it is for people to succumb to illusion and forget the emptiness of their lives. Like the great magician, director Charles Sturridge (Where Angels Fear To Tread; TV's Gulliver's Travels) asks us to consider what is real. Maybe that's why the kids were so bored. They -- like the two girls, Elsie Wright (Florence Hoath) and her cousin Frances Griffiths (Elizabeth Earl) -- already know that fairies exist. It's we adults who need to start opening our eyes. At the Holiday, Lincoln Mall, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.

-- Mark Bazer