Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Review

by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)
December 13th, 2004

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2

Imagine this, Jim Carrey at the top of his comedic form being constantly and consistently upstaged by a two-year-old girl named Sunny, played with infinite charm by the Hoffman twins, Kara and Shelby, a pair of non-verbal munchkins whose words are subtitled. Everything Sunny "says" brings down the house in riotous laugher. Just as big of a surprise is how well the very dark LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS appeals to even the youngest members of the audience, who you'd think might be scared but aren't, as well as the adults.

The movie is narrated perfectly by Jude Law as Lemony Snicket. Snicket keeps warning the audience that the tale will be dark so we might want to leave the theater, room or airplane from which we are watching it.

In addition to Sunny, whose claim to fame is as a world-class biter, the rest of the Baudelaire children consist of a voracious reader named Klaus (Liam Aiken) and an imaginative inventor named Violet (Emily Browning, a real looker who could pass for Angelina Jolie's daughter).

After the mysterious death of their parents and a fire that burned down their house, the kids -- along with their vast inheritance -- are sent to live with their closest living relative, one Count Olaf (Jim Carrey). Being their third cousin, four times removed, he may not be the closest relative in every sense, but his crumbling gothic mansion is just thirty-nine blocks away. One look at the count's pigsty of a home, and Sunny declares, "Let's sleep outside." The kids are given a long list of laborious chores to do each day, including making dinner in a rat-infested kitchen.

The kids eventually move in with their sweet and eccentric Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly), with whom they live happily ever after. Well, when the narrator makes some such declaration and even says, "The end," you know it isn't to be since only about half of the film's time has elapsed. Uncle Monty won't be long for this world -- death and near death experiences are a common theme in the story -- but the kids will soon have yet another guardian, their crazy and grammar-obsessed Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep). Dear auntie has one thing she loathes even more than a misspelled word, real estate agents. "I could never sell this house," she tells the kids honestly, since "I'm scared of realtors."

Even with killer leeches, this movie never really frightened our packed audience, filled with youngsters and adults of all ages. Still, if your tikes are prone to fright, you might want to be careful. But, if you're willing to take a risk, I bet they'll like it. There is no risk for any other age group. Everyone above about five is bound to adore it.

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS runs 1:47. It is rated PG for "thematic elements, scary situations and brief language" and would be acceptable for kids around six and up.

My son Jeffrey, age 15, who was as dubious of the movie as I was based on trailers, absolutely loved it, giving it *** 1/2. He liked the little girl the best and had a whole host of things he liked about the picture -- creativity, pacing, humor, etc. His cousin William, age 10, liked the movie a lot too. He thought it was scary, mysterious and funny. William's sister Liana, age 8, had a really good time at the movie. Her favorite part was when Sunny bit a man's toe.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, December 17, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

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