Brave

Brave is a good family adventure with a more interesting mother than its noisy comedy initially suggests. Directors Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman put Merida’s impatience with family expectations at its centre, then give Elinor enough force to make the disagreement worth following. The film works best when it allows both women to be difficult. Its broader jokes and uncertain plotting are less rewarding, but the relationship gives us a reason to stay.

Kelly Macdonald voices Merida with an impatience that can be funny and wearing in the same exchange. That is credible behaviour for someone who wants to be heard, though the film occasionally seems to think repetition makes the point stronger. Emma Thompson’s Elinor is the richer performance: firm, wounded and convinced that she is helping. We felt for her more than we expected. Emma Thompson makes the mother’s concern audible beneath the instructions, so that Merida’s resistance hurts even when we understand it.

The Scottish setting deserves the attention it gets. Cinematographers Danielle Feinberg and Robert Anderson give the landscapes a painterly softness without making them feel insubstantial. Steve Pilcher’s production design supplies enough detail to reward looking around, rather than simply waiting for the next burst of action. There is similar care in the faces. The character animation makes Elinor’s frustration and Merida’s impatience legible before either needs another line.

Patrick Doyle’s traditional score suits the setting and helps the adventure find a warmth that the broadest jokes cannot supply. There is pleasure in how readily the music accommodates affection and excitement. Editors Nicholas C. Smith and Robert Grahamjones keep things brisk, although speed cannot disguise the sense that the different kinds of story have been joined rather hastily. The louder comedy sometimes breaks into moments that needed a little quiet. We would have preferred another exchange between the women to another interruption.

The screenplay, credited to Brenda Chapman, Irene Mecchi, Mark Andrews and Steve Purcell, is less assured about what Merida’s independence might involve. It establishes her frustration clearly, then becomes too content with the familiar business of teaching everyone to understand everyone else. There is nothing wrong with that lesson, but it is smaller than the quarrel that prompted it. Elinor’s attachment to tradition needs more examination, too. The film gives her feelings weight without making an equally strong case for the rules she wants her daughter to accept.

Within family fantasy, giving this much attention to a mother and daughter is a welcome choice. Neither has to be agreeable all the time, and their difficulty with each other is recognisable enough to matter beyond the adventure. The surrounding comedy is less particular, and its volume can make the central performances seem stranded in a subtler film. Even so, the affection between these two remains convincing when they are making each other miserable.

At 93 minutes, Brave makes a manageable family evening. It is worth choosing for the central performances and for an animated world that has received more care than some of the jokes. The familiar lessons will not trouble everyone, though the uneven storytelling may. Parents may find themselves taking a side sooner than their children would like.