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Nine years ago, Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) discovered that he could bring literary characters to life simply by reading aloud from books. The price: for anyone he brings into our world, someone from ours has to vanish into the book. That's how he lost his wife, and he and his daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett), have been searching for a way to bring her back ever since, while trying to stay two steps ahead of the villainous Capricorn (Andy Serkis)--the first character Mo summoned. Capricorn is out to build an empire on earth, and to do that, he needs someone like Mo to read treasures and henchmen from the page. He's also responsible for destroying most of the copies of the very rare Inkheart books, desperate not to be "read back" into his world as the fire breather, Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), a man also looking to get back his family, so badly wants. All of this sounds like a fascinating premise for a book or movie, especially the inherent argument that the written word has tangible power, but the execution is dull and lacks any sense of fun. It's an adventure that comes with no wonder.