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Daniel Handler's youth novels Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events are really just The Perils of Pauline for children. No sooner do the heroes escape one near catastrophe than they are plunged into another.
The formula worked well for the old movie serials because they lasted about 30 minutes.
Steven Spielberg spun the concept out to full length for his Indiana Jones movies, which is what Brad Silberling attempts to do with Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. The result is not as exciting or satisfying because the movie has an episodic feel.
The film is based on the first three books in Handler's series and it shows. It feels like three distinct adventures.
Lemony Snicket, voiced by Jude Law, claims to be the biographer of the Beaudelaire orphans. Law's commentary is witty and subversive.
At the opening of the film, the three youngsters lose their parents to a suspicious fire.
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At first, they and their immense fortune are placed in the care of a distant relative named Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), an actor with more delusions and pretension than artistic merit
Olaf wants the children dead so he can have their money, but he has his hands full.
Violet Beaudelaire (Emily Browning) is not just inventive but an inventor.
Her brother Klaus (Liam Aiken) is a voracious reader with a photographic memory.
Infant sister Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) has teeth that would make a shark proud.
Watching the Beaudelaires outwit Olaf is as much fun as seeing how Carrey manipulates his disguises or watching how the film's guest stars chew up as much scenery as Sunny.
Meryl Streep is hilarious as Aunt Josephine, the dithery widow, while Billy Connolly's Uncle Monty is a sweet guardian. Carrey's extravagance aids the film, because he's so outrageous children won't be as frightened by the dark subject matter as they might have with a more realistic villain.
Lemony Snicket sets, costumes and music are exceptional and go a long way to disguising the simplistic material.
(This film is rated PG)