‘Coraline’

The other mother. The other father. Who among us hasn’t in some dark and frustrated moment wished for that “other” life? The one we imagine filled with beauty, where nothing goes wanting, and is populated by those “other” people, the ones who are everything we want them to be rather than their disappointing real selves. That is the haunting world of “Coraline,” very much a fairy tale for an adult sensibility, in which animation and wistful thinking dance a spellbinding and frightening web of possibilities. Sadly, even in such a wonderful other place there is a flip side to the shiniest coin, and Coraline, an inquisitive and unusual young girl, must decide whether or not to pay perfection’s very steep price. Director Henry Selick’s stop motion film, lingering still in a few local theaters, is a visual feast.

-- Betsy Sharkey