On the silver screen, the genre of magic realism has been crowded chock full of good movies, even franchises that have gained cult followings, as the genre retains its charm by projecting the wider, unshackled scope of imagination to the viewers, thereby evoking a sense of awe and wonder. Stan’s latest release, “The Portable Door,” adapted from the fantasy novel series “J.W. Wells and Co.” written by Tom Holt, desperately tries to replicate the charm but fails to offer anything new that genre fans haven’t seen already and offers so little in the way of worldbuilding that viewers themselves will ask for an exposition dump. Flaunting a rather heavy cast with the likes of Christoph Waltz, Sam Neil, Miranda Otto, and Patrick Gibson on board, the movie fails to justify the big names in the roles that the makers didn’t bother fleshing out even the basics of. The central narrative of “The Portable Door” follows the exploits of a luckless (or not) Londoner as he gets recruited into a particularly interesting private firm having a colorful assortment of quirky characters who keep themselves busy dealing with destinies.
Spoilers Ahead
The Prologue
As the movie begins with a black screen, the arranged bokeh lighting illuminates the screen, and as the camera focuses, those lights are seen to be doorknobs, and the scene presents a room full of doors in every direction. An elderly, unnamed person, played by Christoph Waltz, enters the room in search of his pet baby dragon, but he later finds out that it is an illusion. A figure stands outside the entry door and remarks that whoever closes the door keeps it and shuts the door off. The elderly person tries his best to escape by hurling a magical energy projection onto the door, but to no avail.
That Kind Of Morning
After the prologue, we are introduced to the protagonist of the tale, Paul Carpenter, a callous, clueless, talkative young man in his mid-twenties, living in a dingy apartment in London with his good-for-nothing moocher roommate. Paul wakes up and gets delayed in his job-hunting routine due to getting himself caught in various bad situations that coincide at the same time, but somehow manages to arrive at the café where he will be applying for a post as a barista. Out of nowhere, a peculiar man who introduces himself as Paul’s college professor named Monty Smith-Gregg distracts him for a long time, which causes the queue in front of Paul to get elongated. To add to the misery, a pooch decides to run off with Paul’s scarf and leads him to an empty alleyway. Paul notices a side entrance of a building in the alleyway that is specialized for applicants, and he curiously enters.
Upon entering, he meets a fellow applicant named Sophie Pentigel, who dismisses Paul’s small talk and doesn’t answer his inquiries about the kind of institution they are interviewing for. Paul learns the name of the private firm to be J.W. Wells and Co. from a brochure and gets summoned by the interview board. Even though Paul can’t provide them with any justification as to why he should be appointed or any particular talent or skillset he can offer, the current owner of the firm, Humphrey Wells, also played by Christoph Waltz, takes a liking to him after observing Paul’s peculiar imaginative skills. Paul returns home, being quite sure that he has no chance of getting this job and finds his moocher friend leaving as well. Unbeknownst to them, a gnarly hand delivers a letter inside their apartment through the mail slot, from which Paul finds out that he has been hired by the company as a paid intern. It should be mentioned that previously Paul didn’t inform the firm executives about his name or address, and yet they seemed to know those details beforehand.
First Day At The Job
The next day, Paul reaches the firm as instructed and gets guided by a gruff, bossy man named Dennis Tanner. Paul is vaguely informed about his job and particularly about the fact that he is to leave as soon as the working hour ends. Paul also notices the aforementioned professor working at the firm as well. However, Tanner groups Paul with Sophie, who has managed to get recruited as well, and later the receptionist Rosie tasks the duo with the tedious work of locating bauxite across maps. Paul tries to befriend Sophie but is once again dismissed; as Sophie remarks, she is part of the fast-track program for upper-level management and soon will be promoted to a better position than what they are currently assigned to.
After a while, Countess Judy, part of the interview board and a chief executive of the firm, entrusts Rosie with a job to make two people fall in love by fabricating coincidences. As a seer, Sophie gets taken under the Countess’ wing as part of the program, and Paul returns to his bauxite searching. By happenstance, Paul rubs his hand across the map and realizes that he can feel a static connection with some parts of the map, something that an overlooking Humphry also notices. An overjoyed Humphry remarks that Paul is a talented diviner and maybe something more (clarified later). Through Humphry’s words, the modus operandi of the firm becomes a bit clearer: it has existed for centuries to manipulate chances and coincidences and shape the destiny of mankind, something I think would have disappointed novelist Thomas Hardy. However, Humphry shares the fact that his father, who was supposedly an egomaniac, made him write a contract in his childhood that stated that he would take control of Humphry’s soul if he ever betrayed him—information that, unknown to Paul, is somewhat related to the task Humphry entrusts him with—finding the portable door, the most powerful and coveted artefact ever to exist. The door has the ability to disguise itself, and Paul has to use his talent (something about which he has little idea) to find it. As Paul leaves, Tanner and Humphry mention not to disclose the information to anyone else, as it is crucial for ‘Operation Fine Print,’ supposedly a facelift venture for the company.
Search And Found
On his way out, Paul gets warned by Nienke Van Spee and gets tortured in his dreams by Casimir to reveal the reason for recruiting him—both are chief executives of the company and powerful magicians in their own right. Casimir mentions the door being related to the Bank of the Dead. Paul gets busy looking for this elusive artifact and stumbles across a stairwell leading down to a basement, which mentions being accessible only by goblins. Tanner finds him, scares him away from the gate, and enters himself.
Sophie is informed by the Countess about the secretive service of goblins, which has helped the firm keep tabs on regular humans for centuries and arrange coincidences. The Countess also mentions that the company is engaged in secretive infighting as the rest of the board members speculate that Tanner and Humphry are up to no good and that they might have a role in the disappearance of the previous owner of the firm, the kind and benevolent John Wells, father of Humphry, and also the disappearance of Dennis Tanner’s father, Arthur. The board members think the renovation project and the recruitment of Paul are related to something fishy that has yet to be discovered.
Sophie becomes increasingly jaded and confused and starts acting strange, contrasting her interests in a peculiar way. She gets into an argument with Tanner because she wants to quit, but, according to Tanner, that isn’t permissible due to the contract she signed with the company. To ease herself, Sophie goes out with Paul for a drink, but even then, she starts behaving in a strange, antithetical way, which creates a bitter situation, and the duo leaves. The next day, Paul finds Monty, the professor, once again guarding the basement entry, who apologetically confesses that he didn’t know Paul previously and deliberately delayed him to create the coincidence of getting him recruited in the firm. Noticing that Monty is afraid of Tanner, Paul blackmails him to allow his entry to the basement, and after going inside, he ventures into a magical realm. Using his ‘Diviner’ powers of tactile sensing, Paul discovers the Portable Door.
The Devil In Disguise
As Paul uses the door for the first time, he enters through it in what seems to be a lobby, and the door transforms into a towel. Paul peeks through the keyhole of the boardroom in front of him, where he sees Humphry and Tanner discussing their new venture with other business partners, which turns out to be Humphry’s nefarious scheme to rob humans of their free will by the contracts undertaken for their service and capitalize on the increasing demand for coincidences. Paul witnesses that Sophie is one of their first ‘test subjects,’ who has been bound by such a contract, and she is being manipulated by Humphry, which is the reason behind her contrasting behavior. Paul discovers the rule of using the door on the label of the towel, which is to uphold it straight and utter knock, knock. Paul does so, the door appears, and he leaves.
The next day, he goes to Sophie and throws away both their IDs, which were acting as surveillance devices. Paul informs her about the situation and also shows the magical capabilities of the door, which can take the user anywhere he or she commands—basically the anywhere door in Doraemon. During his first attempt, Paul forgets to command and ends up in the same place where the elderly man is trapped. Later, as he gets a hang of using the door, Sophie gets ecstatic, and the duo uses the door in the most sensible way anyone could’ve done it—traveling across the world. Gradually, Paul and Sophie come closer, and Sophie confesses her feelings to him. But given the fact that her feelings were being manipulated by Humphry previously, she isn’t sure whether her feelings for Paul are true. Paul hits upon a plan to steal Sophie’s contract from the office at night. Tanner arrives just as the duo returns to their office and realizes that they have already found the door. He warns Paul about Humphry’s deadly retribution.
What Happened To The Portable Door? Did Sophie Express Her Feelings To Paul?
As previously planned, Paul and Sophie enter the office at night using the door, and the office appears quite eerie, lurking with the presence of something. While searching for Sophie’s contract, the duo finds the insignia of the Bank of the Dead, which is supposed to be underneath the office. They also discover the place to be filled with squirming goblins, and to their shock, Tanner also turns out to be one of them. Humphry joins the party and, realizing Paul’s betrayal, attacks him and Sophie, showcasing his powers as a great wizard. Just before they manage to escape, Humphry holds the door, commands, and casts them off to the room full of doors, where they meet Humphry’s father, John Wells (the same elderly person shown in the beginning). John informs them that the place is called Nether, from where there is no escape, and he only survived due to being a great wizard. He also holds the contract of his son’s soul but needs to deposit it at the Bank of the Dead to gain control over Humphry.
Paul manages to channel his powers and finds an exit from the Nether. The trio of Paul, Sophie, and John enter the firm and prepare for their assault on Humphry. However, Humphry manages to get the upper hand, captures John and Sophie in his magic snare, and demands the contract, which is now in Paul’s hands. Sophie uses her seer abilities to communicate with Countess and thereby bring in the rest of the executives and assure Paul of her faith in him. She telepathically tells Paul that he found the exit from the Nether on his own, and he can conjure up the door to the Bank of the Dead if he really wishes to. Paul manages to do so, and instead of simply depositing Humphry’s contract, he trades it for Sophie’s, thereby freeing Sophie from external control. After Humphrys contract is deposited, John gains control over his son’s soul and banishes him in the Nether. Turns out, receptionist Rosie was a goblin too, she was Tanner’s mother, and his father, Arthur, who was turned into a stapler, gains his original form with John’s help.
Later, John removes the instruction label from the Portable Door’s towel form, essentially making it ineffective. After everything they have been through, it was possibly the best way to ensure that the door doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Although the door is now closed, what fate awaits Humphry can only be speculated. As the executive committee, now headed by John Wells, assigns Paul and Sophie to their respective positions as full-time employees, Sophie communicates with Paul telepathically, and now that her decisions and judgments are in her own mental command, she professes her feelings to Paul.
In the post-credits scene, a housekeeper is seen carrying a towel and uttering knock, knock, in front of a door. The screen turns black, and a whooshing sound is made, giving us a clue that the door is still active and accessible for new adventures.
