fairy tale claims to be based in truth , from the writings of sir arthur conan doyle . however , the title and the special effects might lead you to believe this is a children's fantasy . unfortunately , this inspired attempt at a sweet story fails on both accounts . it's subject matter and dry storytelling are much to advanced for children , and is too dry for adults . the film focuses on a pair of little girls , cousins who roam the meadows looking for fairies . what sets them apart is from the adults in the film is that they believe in the existence of these little people , not only because they are girls at play , but because they have actually seen them . the adults don't develop faith until the girls take two photographs of fairies , at which point a controversy arises , do they exist , or was this an act of trickery ? the little girls and the fairies should be the focus of this film , but too much screen-time is devoted to harry houdini ( harvey keitel ) and sir arthur conan doyle ( peter o'toole ) . because of the claimed truthfulness of the story , doyle and houdini are important to the story , but that doesn't mean they work . this film would have been much more entertaining both for children and for adults if they had taken the doyle storyline , and applied more of a fantastic twist . the true disappointment for me was that the fairies only appear onscreen briefly , and we never get to meet any of them . they look like wonderful characters , but none are ever explored , we don't know their names , we don't even get to hear them talk . there are some good aspects of the film , however . though much of the photography is standard and not terribly challenging , it manages to capture some beautiful scenery quite well . there are also some interesting looks at the early days of photography , showing us cameras from the early 20th century , and glass plate exposures . the little girls are quite good , especially frances ( elizabeth earl ) . she has a cute , smart and almost sassy attitude that translates quite well for her character . her energy is always high and she has some of the more enjoyable dialogue . unfortunately , type-casting does have its place in filmmaking , and even the most versatile of typecast actors have trouble now and again . physcially , there couldn't be a better match for harry houdini than harvey keitel , but when i watched him in this , i couldn't stop images of the pimp from taxi driver , or " the wolf " from pulp fiction from flooding my head . aside from the fact that houdini doesn't make much of an impact as a character in this film , keitel adds to the distraction . fairy tale a true story could have done a lot more . had it decided to take a turn into more fantasy , less realism , this could have been a real success . but the only time the children in the audience seemed excited , and asked questions of their parents as children so often do at the movies , was when the faires were onscreen . it seemed a shame that they were only able to enjoy the film for those fleeting moments . * * coincidentally , the two girls grew up to become old women , and confessed that the photographs were indeed fakes . so why couldn't this film have gone deeper into fantasy than it did if there was no truth to it . . . . . ? two out of four stars copyright ( c ) nicholas amado 1997<hr>comments ? complaints ? debate ? autos for sale ? e-mail me <a href= " mailto : namiam@aol . com " >namiam@aol . com</a> 
