Tom & Jerry (3½ Stars)

This is a milestone for me and my family. It's my first cinema visit with my five-year-old grandson Oliver. He's already watched four films at home, so that makes it his fifth feature film. I had the impression that he was getting impatient – the film lasted 102 minutes – but he was able to sit to the end. It helped that he had a large tub of popcorn to keep him occupied. It didn't last till the end of the movie.

Oliver is used to Tom & Jerry cartoons. I also knew the cartoons as a child. The difference is that I watched the cartoons on television, whereas he watches them on YouTube. That means he knows the cartoons better than I ever did, because he can repeat his favourite cartoons as often as he wants. Children today are so fortunate, but I shan't talk about it too much. It would make me sound old.

The cartoons are fully animated, but the film is a combination of computer animation and live action. It takes place in the Royal Gate Hotel, a luxury hotel facing New York's Central Park. The young woman Kayla Forester gets a job by stealing another woman's resume. She's initially hired as a concierge, but she's soon promoted to event manager. This is an important position, because two famous celebrities are planning to get married in the hotel. The main problem is that the hotel has a mouse problem: Jerry! Kayla hires Tom to deal with the problem. The mouse has to be gone before the wedding.

The film is full of the usual slapstick that we know from the cartoons, but it soon became obvious to me that the film is about Kayla. She's the main character, whatever the title of the film might be. Tom and Jerry are just incidental.

Chloe Grace Moretz is an excellent actress. Nobody else could have played the role as well as her. We follow her rise and fall and rise again, while the animated characters disappear into the background. Tom and Jerry make us laugh, but it's Kayla who wins our hearts.

Oliver didn't notice that the film was all about Kayla. He's too young to pick up subtleties like that. I talked to him about the film on the way home, and he just remembered Tom and Jerry fighting. I hope that one day he'll become a serious film fan like me. In fact, I hope that he'll become a better writer than I am. My reviews are erratic: some good, some bad, and the most average. I'd like Oliver to be better than me. Only time will tell.

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