Sometimes it’s fun to slip into a fantasy world, but it’s not so fun when the fictional characters really are out to get you.

“”Inkheart”” tells the story of Mortimer Folchart (Brendan Fraser), who, by reading stories out loud, can make the characters come to life. This curious gift has cost “”Mo”” his wife (Sienna Guillory), because when he reads a character out of a story (literally), a person from the real world gets trapped inside the novel.

When Mo read, “”Inkheart””, a rare out-of-print book, he accidentally swapped his wife for some medieval cronies and a fire juggler. Determined to retrieve his wife from the pages, Mo drags his unaware daughter, Meggie (Eliza Hope Bennett) all over Europe in search of the book.

Mo’s bad luck seems to come in droves. As he and his daughter are close to the end of Mo’s quest, they wind up in a struggle with the cronies because they want to use his powers for world domination.

Originally a novel by Cornelia Funke, “”Inkheart”” has a fantastical premise and is entertaining and imaginative at times, but falls short because of all the obvious holes in the story line.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars