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Film review: The Portable Door - A Potteresque mystery

Adaptation of the first book of Tom Holt’s J.W. Wells & Co. book series is fun but has too much going on all the time to fully work

April 17, 2023 11:33
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Based on the best selling book series by Tom Holt, this family comedy invites you into a world of fantasy and madness where all coincidences are orchestrated by a very strange company. In The Portable Door, Paul Carpenter (Gibson) and Sophie Pettingel (Wilde) are the lowly, put-upon interns who begin working at the mysterious London firm J.W. Wells & Co. and become steadily aware that their employers are anything but conventional. Charismatic villains Humphrey Wells (Waltz), the CEO of the company and middle manager Dennis Tanner (Neill) are disrupting the world of magic by bringing modern corporate strategy to ancient magical practices, and Paul and Sophie discover the true agenda of the vast corporation where they work.

ByLinda Marric

1 min read

The Portable Door
Cert: PG | ★★★✩✩

Australian-born filmmaker Jeffrey Walker directs this Harry Potter-esque adaptation of the first book of Tom Holt’s J.W. Wells & Co. book series.

Patrick Gibson stars as Paul Carpenter, a hapless young man who becomes a new intern at the mysterious London firm which blends magic with modern business. .

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Sam Neill in The Portable Door (Sky UK)

Recruited by boss Humphrey Wells (Christoph Waltz), Paul is paired up with straight A recruit Sophie Pettingel (played impeccably by Australian actress Sophie Wilde) who takes a dislike to her new companion, but later bonds with him.

The pair quickly become aware that their new job is anything but normal. When Sophie is headhunted by the Department of Coincidence to arrange a meet-cute between two people, Paul becomes increasingly intrigued by the firm.

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Patrick Gibson and Sophie Pettingel (Sky UK)

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