Dir.
Brad Silberling, US, 2004, 108 mins
Cast:
Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep
This is going to be "extremely unpleasant" warn the sombre tones of our narrator, Jude Law, as he begins to relate the sad tale of the Baudelaire children - Violet, Klaus and Sunny - whose wealthy parents are killed in a house fire, leaving their precocious offspring to be farmed out to succession of distant relatives. Unpleasant it may be for them, but the while the film's mood is morose, always over-shadowed by the presence of a particularly unpleasant relative, it is in fact full of dark, gothic beauty. Little surprise that the production designer, Rick Heinrichs, had previously worked on Sleepy Hollow.
It's the well-meaning but somewhat dim Mr Poe (Timothy Spall) who relates the bad news to the children, and they are whisked off to Count Orlof's turreted mansion come castle. Orlof is played by Jim Carrey, almost unrecognisable under the old man's latex and wispy white hair, but the manic grin and evil glint is pure Carrey, and these trademark characteristics alert us to the fact that these youngsters really should not be paying the taxi fare just yet. He adopts the air of an old theatre luvvie, but the love he has is for the children's fortune and is cheerfully thinking of ways to dispose of the three obstacles in his path to getting his bony talon-like hands on it. Fortunately, these are canny siblings who not only manage to thwart his attempts at killing them, also manage to get posted to another distant relative.
This time round it's the rather lovely Uncle Monty (Billy connolly) whose house is littered with Snake skeletons and other strange and wonderful botanical wonders. Happy ending? Well, there could have been, had not an unconvincing Italian with a dodgy accent, and a manic grin and evil glint, come a-calling.
The film continues in this vein, with nice but eccentric relatives playing host to the children (Aunt Josephine, who is scared of everything even though her house is precariously balanced on spindly supports over a deep precipice, is particularly wonderful and mad), only to be visited by a rather suspicious looking man.
The film is a very, very dark comedy, and certainly not the laugh-out-loud slapstick that one has come to suspect from Carrey. He hits the balance just right in this portrayal, his menacing presence permeating the film. The children too turn in excellent performances, secreting an air of intelligence and cynicism that seems to evade the adults around them, whilst the well-known cast all manage to avoid succumbing to the temptation of over-acting their characters, all of whom could easily have become overblown caricatures. That they are suitably low-key performances within a dark fairy-tale is a credit to them all. Saying that, the film is somewhat lacking in emotion. Do the children care that their parents are dead? Aren't they afraid of this wicked uncle? Are they sorry all these people's lives are in danger?
In all, however, Lemony Snicket brings to life a memorable addition to the pantheon of children's film characters. Reminiscent of Roald Dahl, the brooding atmosphere and dark comedy should appeal to youngsters whilst there is enough in the performances of the well-known (if sometimes unrecognisable) older faces, along with the staggeringly well-crafted set design, to keep the older audiences from shuffling in their seats.
Jean Lynch |
