Saunders: Innocence the real gem in 'Solomon's Mines'

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Noah Wyle, the swashbuckling hero of The Librarian, has just finished dueling an invisible opponent in a special library, which is a repository for all things mystical and mythological.

This vault-like structure contains such items as the Holy Grail, Excalibur, the real Mona Lisa and the goose that lays the golden egg.

Our perspiring hero picks up a towel to remove the sweat from his brow. Enter Bob Newhart, who, in is best eye-blinking, hesitant Dr. Bob Hartley style, scolds:

"Uh . . . you're using the Shroud of Turin."

This is a swashbuckling drama?

Well, yes and no. While containing an ample supply of Raiders of the Lost Ark-style action, TNT's The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, is sprinkled liberally with tongue-in-cheek humor.

How else to explain this sequence: The lives of the characters portrayed by Wyle and Gabrielle Anwar, his charming co-star, are endangered on an African lake. Their small boat, about to capsize, is surrounded by huge, man-eating hippos looking for human flesh for dinner.

So how does this romantic duo survive? Their African guide tosses the hippos boxes of chocolates.

And keep in mind it's really difficult to take Newhart seriously in his role as curator of the fascinating library.

The overall result is a mixed bag of entertainment. Occasionally, the humor, a bit forced, intrudes on the often-complicated story line. The film is a sequel to The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, a 2004 TNT cable movie viewed by nearly seven million viewers, making it the most watched, ad-supported, basic cable movie of the year.

Wyle, Newhart and several other actors are reprising their roles, as well as Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation), who returns as director. Thus, viewers familiar with the earlier production should assimilate more quickly with the goings-on.

Wyle, the former star of ER, portrays Flynn Carlson, a brilliant man in his 30s with 22 academic degrees, who has been hired to protect the repository of humanity's greatest secrets, all hidden beneath the monolithic library. While a brilliant academic, Carlson is not exactly a rip-roaring Indiana Jones when facing danger in exotic locations. Part of the film's humor evolves from his antihero responses.

Carlson's latest adventure takes him on a quest for treasure in the fabled mines of King Solomon after he receives a package containing a map to the location. He's accompanied by a brilliant archaeologist, Emily Davenport (Anwar), a woman whose academic skills surpass even his own. The plot thickens (almost too much) when Carlson discovers that his father, who died many years earlier, had an important connection to the mines.

Even with the murky story line, Wyle plays his character well, being neither superhero nor bumbling idiot.

"I think what makes this type of movie appeal to the audience is the fact a lot of people can relate to being a geek and wanting to be a hero," Wyle told critics. "The film is about an antihero. He's the academic thrown into an action sequence.

"As the plot progresses, Carlson becomes a bit more savvy, but he never loses that spark of naiveté and innocence."

Production values are first rate. Filmed in high definition, The Librarian was shot mostly in Kenya and Cape Town, giving the film the necessary Africa look.

The vistas are visually wonderful, and occasionally provide scriptwriter Marco Schnabel the opportunity to provide bits of ribald humor. In one sequence, Flynn Carlson talks at length about two mountain peaks, called the Breasts of Sheba. Then the cameras focus on them in the distance.

Additional dialogue is not needed.

Wyle contends The Librarian is the type of old-fashioned "popcorn flick' that used to be the staple of movie houses on Saturday afternoons. "There's a scarcity of this type of movie on television right now," he said.

Point taken.

The Librarian qualifies as an old-fashioned adventure tale, free of the blood-and-guts, murder-and-mayhem TV movies that currently glut the network and cable channels.

On TV

• What: The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines

• When and where: premieres at 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday on TNT

saunders@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5137