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One part FAO Schwartz, one part Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a toy store as alive as the Velveteen Rabbit, and as odd-with a room that changes with a switch of a knob (house, ball room, train), a pop-up inventory book that pops up the real item, and a spaceship!-as its owner, 243-year-old Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman). Mr. M.'s holes in the soles of his shoes reveal more than his striped socks, as they're an indication of his literal retirement. His adorable shop girl Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman) has been thinking about her own need to move on, grow up, and finally finish the piano composition she's been working on for forever and a day. (Nice moment when a guy from her college days shows up at the Emporium and asks what she's been up to: umm, nothing.) Accountant Henry Weston (Jason Bateman) arrives to help get the Emporium's books in order and, you know, not believe in the magic, and queer kid Eric Applebaum (Zach Mills), who has a way with Lincoln Logs but can't make a friend his own age, hangs around. "Believe" is more than a logo in this perfectly fine family flick that's not the worst matinee choice for the whole gang this holiday season.

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