After seeing Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, I was left wondering where the "Wonder" was? While mildly entertaining at times, it's one of those movies whose reach exceeded its grasp.

As always, I took my two grandchildren, Connor and Calen. While they were mildly entertained, I think the movie was largely forgotten by the time I got them home. And for those of you who take children to movies, that is probably as accurate a critique that can be made of this hodgepodge of a movie.

Simply put, there just isn't anything particularly memorable about it. Unfortunately, it suffers from trying to compress too many themes into a fantasy film. As a result, the audience is left juggling a number of messages, none of which are very compelling.

Dustin Hoffman's rather annoying sounding Mr. Magorium is suppose to serve as a lesson about embracing life while it is here. Jason Bateman, surprisingly the best thing about this movie, plays a straight-laced accountant who rediscovers his inner child. The wonderful Natalie Portman is strangely flat as the Emporium's second in command who is desperately trying to find some inspiration in life. Finally, thrown into the mix is Zachary Mills as a twelve-year-old child who is simply trying to figure out how to make a friend. To quote Annie Hall, "La de da, la de da."

However, what was truly disappointing was the lack of magic flowing from the Emporium itself. After you see it for the first time, it becomes little more than a Toys "R" Us hallucination on weak acid.

Moreover, the movie lacked the spontaneity and verve of Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hoffman's Margorium has none of Johnny Depp's impish deviltry that was sorely needed to tell a more compelling story. It made me wish that Jim Carrey, as Lemony Snickets, would have suddenly jumped from the Emporium's magic book and threatened to kill somebody.

Sadly, the best exchange in the movie left you wishing that director Zach Helm had been able to fulfill his good intentions. As Hoffman is telling Natalie Portman that he is dying, she looks at him and says, "I want you to live", to which he wonderfully replies, "Darling, I already have."

But there's never any meaningful follow up, leaving you with the feeling that since this movie was marketed as a "family film", any significant life lessons could go deeper than the shallow end of a children's wading pool.

That was a shame, as this movie could have been so much more.