Took the older two kids to see Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events a few days ago, but have been too busy to post about it. First off: I got over Jim Carrey rather quickly. I can see why they picked him. He has moments when he's still where he looks EXACTLY like Brent Hilquist's drawing. I still think he's too hammy for the role, even though Count Olaf is a ham. I always thought of him as more EVIL than anything else. The henchmen are frightening when they need to be, and silly at times, which bothered me.
The movie is breathtakingly beautiful. The sets are precarious, deadly, beautiful, and I found out later that the set designer for Sleepy Hollow did this movie. I thought Sleepy Hollow was another beautiful movie to see. The children were darling and sad, and escaped the "cutesy child actor" thing I hate.
That being said, you don't really care. It's hard to care when you are so inundated with bad things happening to them in such a short amount of time. They should have made a special for cable or television and done each book as an hour long episode. Mainly to give the audience a chance to pity the orphans and recover for the next series of unfortunate events. My main reason for saying this? We drove home from the theater in an absolute funk. SOme might say that is testament to the movie. Well, the books are COMICAL. This was just depressing. My seven year old daughter burst into TEARS at the last five minutes of the movie. Just completely undone with how horrible life was to these kids. Alrighty. Thanks, MOM!
Positives: gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. The closing credits are wonderful to see. The last time I had this much fun with credits was HP: PoA (watch the feet: some kids are making out! Some feet jump over other people in a game of leap frog... Fun!) Meryl Streep is obviously having fun, the moments with Uncle Monty are heartbreakingly sweet after everything that's befallen them, and the author's notes from the books are translated well on the big screen. But then, I want to hollow Jude Law out and make Man PantsTM out of him.
So, if you are a die-hard fan (like us) pay for a matinee. If you are just curious, wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it at home so you can pause the movie, step outside, breath deep the scent of flowers, then go back. But it is lovely to see.
I also received a package from