Andrew Garfield Stars in 1940s Children's Tale 'The Magic Faraway Tree'

Q: What hidden adult heartbreak lies beneath the slapstick comedy of Garfield's whimsical new children's movie?

Beneath the fart jokes, fairies and slapstick, the film’s adult heartbreak is about deferred dreams and the compromises of parenthood. That emotional layer is carried most clearly through Claire Foy’s Polly Thompson. The movie gives her a “dream binder,” a record of earlier ambitions that she revisits after the family’s life is upended. In the story, Polly leaves her job after discovering the technology she helped create is being used in troubling ways, and the family gives up its city life for an uncertain fresh start in the countryside. That makes the fantasy adventure also a story about adults mourning the lives they thought they would have. Reviews and interviews suggest the film uses the children’s magical journey to mirror a quieter parental crisis: career disruption, financial strain, and the ache of sacrificing ambition for family stability. Andrew Garfield has said the movie is meant to offer children adventure and moral clarity without preaching, but the adult material sits just underneath that, especially in the parents’ effort to reconnect with each other and with the ideals they once shared. So while younger viewers may remember the oil gags, slapstick and “farting,” the more hidden emotional engine is a familiar one for grown-ups: the pain of putting dreams on hold, and the hope that family life can still redeem those losses.

3 articles · Updated · NPR · Aug 20

Andrew Garfield leads the new film adaptation of "The Magic Faraway Tree," playing a father who moves his family from the city to the English countryside with Claire Foy as his wife.
The movie brings Enid Blyton’s 1940s children’s book to the screen as a family fantasy filled with fairies, oddball characters and darker stakes, including magical lands that can trap visitors.
Garfield said it is the first film he has made specifically for young children, adding that he wanted material with clear values delivered through humor and adventure rather than preaching.
At a London premiere, Garfield invited 8 or 9 high-school friends and their children; he said the kids praised the fairies, the adventures and the film’s fart jokes.
The release taps demand for simple family viewing, with Garfield saying audiences want joyful theater experiences and that children he has watched in screenings were fully engaged.