‘The Magic Faraway Tree’: Andrew Garfield & Claire Foy On Their Family Adventure, The “Dadrew” Era, & Garfield’s Very Strange Spider-Man Idea [Interview]

Ben Gregor’s “The Magic Faraway Tree” comes with whimsy & nostalgia baked in. What keeps it from feeling like an old favorite dusted off for another generation is how sincerely it treats imagination as something worth holding on to. Technology, distraction, and plain old adulthood have all made that harder than it should be. 

READ MORE: 88 Must-See Movies This Fall: ‘Dune: Part Three,’ ‘Digger,’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘The Adventures Of Cliff Booth’ & More

Simon Farnaby (“Paddington 2,” “Wonka”) brings Enid Blyton’s children’s books into the present by putting a modern family at the center of them. Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy play Tim and Polly Thompson, who leave the city behind and move their family to the English countryside. Their children are not exactly thrilled with the arrangement. Things improve considerably when they discover a magical tree inhabited by a strange collection of characters, with new worlds waiting at the top. Nicola Coughlan, Nonso Anozie, Jessica Gunning, Dustin Demri-Burns, Jennifer Saunders, and Rebecca Ferguson round out the cast.

There are plenty of fairies, wishes, talking creatures, and oversized sweets to keep younger viewers occupied. Some of the movie’s best material, though, comes from watching Tim and Polly slowly loosen up alongside their children. The spark begins returning to their marriage in wonderfully peculiar ways. Garfield waters his tomato plants while singing Gregorian chants. Foy tries to run a tractor on tomato juice. Within the world of this movie, both choices feel entirely reasonable.

Garfield and Foy spoke with The Playlist about recovering some of that childhood curiosity, how the children’s adventures begin affecting Tim and Polly, and finding traces of silent-film comedy in Garfield’s performance. They also discussed what their young co-stars taught them about letting go and being present. From there, Garfield took things in a much different direction, digging into his concerns about technology after playing Sam Altman in “Artificial,” the dramatic change in perspective that came with “The Uprising,” and the very odd idea that might convince him to play Spider-Man again. A Peter Parker road movie, anyone?

Support independent movie journalism to keep it alive. Sign up for The Playlist Newsletter. All the content you want and, oh, right, it’s free.

“The Magic Faraway Tree” opens in theaters on August 21. Watch the full interview below.

Mike DeAngelo

+ postsBio ⮌

Mike DeAngelo is a film writer, podcaster, and entertainment journalist whose work has appeared in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, and beyond. He is the host of The Playlist's podcasts The Discourse and Bingeworthy.

This author does not have any more posts