Tooth Fairy (**½)

Directed by: Michael Lembeck

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd, Stephen Merchant, Julie Andrews, Ryan Sheckler, Destiny Whitlock, Billy Crystal

Seen: April 6^th 2010

**½ Out of ****

Derek Thompson (Johnson) is a minor league hockey player with a big following. He is called the Tooth Fairy, as he specialises in brutal play, usually knocking out an opponent’s teeth. His girlfriend Carley (Judd) has two children, Mick (Sheckler), a “troubled” teenager with authority issues and Tess (Whitlock), young girl who still believes like a child. One night while playing poker with his friends, Derek runs out of money and “borrows” Tess’ tooth fairy money. When Tess wakes up Derek does not have time to return the money and he inexplicably and heartlessly opts for his truth: he attempts to tell Tess the tooth fairy does not exist.

That night he wakes up when he feels something under his pillow, a summons to serve as a tooth fairy, (complete with accusations of disseminating disbelief and murdering dreams) and he grows wings and is transported to the land of the tooth fairies. Derek is sentenced to serve as Tooth Fairy for two weeks by head tooth fairy Lily (Andrews), and assigned a case worker, Tracy (Merchant), a very tall and dangly fairy who has no wings. He gets summoned for Tooth Fairy duty at the most inopportune times though, while he’s on a date, and in the middle of a hockey game among others, and he has to oblige Lily or get sentenced to more time as a Tooth Fairy.

While he has all the trouble in the world trying to keep the tooth fairy business to himself; he also has to keep his newfound family life intact, something he only manages in fits, with Tess a fan of his, but Mick definitely not; and his temperament definitely doesn’t help him, as his mood does at times swing to accommodate the story, rather than what I might have believed of a true aggressive hockey player like Derek Thompson. All the characters do in fact display a bit of a personality that sways as the plot demands, but kids won’t really notice that, and Tooth Fairy is absolutely a kid’s movie.

The movie is filled with innocent comedy ranging from the genuinely funny (Billy Crystal in one scene gives a particularly funny cameo) to the downright silly kid’s slapstick humour. The moral of the story is a great little lesson for children to take to heart, and this is actually a very sweet family movie without being anywhere near brilliant. Tooth Fairy contains a few sweet moments, even though it isn’t very original at all, but any parent can take their kids to see this without the slightest doubt as to whether this might contain inappropriate material for their children. Tooth Fairy is a (very) silly family fun movie with a fitting message for kids and adults: “If you never take the shot, you’ll never score.”