PLOT: The three rich orphaned Baudelaire siblings are forced to endure the dastardly plottings by their insane uncle (Jim Carrey) as he tries to wrest their fortune away.
DEAR READER: Author Lemony Snicket warns you off seeing the movie version of his first three books because there are just so many "extremely unpleasant" things to see, horrible things that will happen and "misery and woe" that overtake the lives of the young heroes.
Snicket instead recommends taking in "a documentary about cheese fondue." Astute fans of the Lemony Snicket universe know, of course, that the warning is a ruse and that the unpleasantries are precisely what attracts them.
So it is no surprise that Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events is chockfull of nuts -- not least of which is Jim Carrey playing evil ogre Count Olaf -- as well as such terrifying creatures as a giant snake, man-eating lake leeches and Meryl Streep as an in-law.
What is a surprise, however, is that, while Brad Silberling's movie has so many sensational attributes, it still manages to be disappointing. That is because the third act of Robert Gordon's screenplay, the part containing the climax, is so awkward and presented so creepily that the whole movie suffers.
Now that is an unfortunate event.
The Lemony Snicket books, which were actually written by San Francisco-based Daniel Handler, are magical adventure stories that tell the entwined fates of the three Baudelaire orphans. Woe does befall them. Their parents die in a fire and their welfare is put into the hands of adult incompetents, primarily Olaf, the leader of a gonzo acting troupe with no talent but lots of malice and mischief.
The children must rely on one another and themselves as one unit.
Carrey's portrayal of Olaf -- as well as of his alter egos Stefano, a fake herpetologist with a snakes phobia, and Captain Sham, a fake Newfoundlander whose guise seems awfully fishy -- is nothing short of spectacular. His rubber face and nothing-too-extreme approach is glorious.
I also love the children who play the Baudelaires, especially Emily Browning as spunky Violet, and Liam Aiken is a good foil as Klaus.
Twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman alternate playing little Sunny, the bold biter. As a trio, they are the appropriate foils for Olaf's insanity.
In the uneven support roles, Jude Law is heard and seen briefly as storyteller Lemony Snicket, while Billy Connolly is great as Uncle Monty, Timothy Spall is good as Mr. Poe, Meryl Streep is bad as Aunt Josephine and both Catherine O'Hara and Cedric The Entertainer are pretty much wasted.
The big problem comes in the closing passages when the children's immediate fate, and Olaf's power over them, will be decided.
The scenes are sluggish and ill-conceived (I found myself longing for a film about cheese fondue) and this stops the movie in its tracks. Tone is crucial in fantastical films and the tone here burps and belches.
That's misery, that's woe: To be so close to greatness and see much of it frittered away!
(This film is rated PG)
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