December 20, 2004 -- “Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events” is a great-looking movie with a weak plot and slow pacing, helped along with some fine acting performances by the manic Jim Carrey and others. As the title suggests, the plot, based on a series of popular children's books, is dark. It includes a series of murders. Carrey plays the villain, Count Olaf. Fortunately, Carrey is so hyperactive and over the top in his performance that Count Olaf ends up being more funny than threatening. His performance lightens the tone of the movie to a tolerable level.

The story has the Baudelaire children, Violet (Emily Browning) Klaus (Liam Aiken) and Sunny (played by Kara and Shelby Hoffman) orphaned after their parents die in a mysterious fire. They are taken to live with their nearest relative, Count Olaf. The count wants to kill the children so he can inherit the family fortune. When one of his murderous schemes goes awry, the children are moved to other relatives. Count Olaf tags along, bumping off the relatives in his single minded pursuit of the inheritance. Always the children recognize the evil count in his various disguises, but the adults always fail to heed the children's warning. Olaf finally regains custody of the children for one final confrontation.

The plot does not hold up to scrutiny. Much of it is illogical. There is no way Olaf could get away with these murders when he obviously had opportunity and motive. The police could not possibly resist so juicy a suspect. However, this is a kind of childish fantasy, not an adult story, so the story's logical flaws can be ignored. The plot's storybook pedigree is reinforced by the fantastic production design by Rick Heinrichs (“Planet of the Apes”) and art direction by John Dexter (“Planet of the Apes”) and Martin Whist (“Down With Love”). This is, hands down, the most fantastic-looking film of the year. It's otherworldly look extends to the props, like the cars, custom-built for the movie, and the costumes, which look like a cross between 1950s clothes and the Victorian era.

The film's look is enhanced by Count Olaf's elaborate house of towers and pillars with its many dilapidated rooms, by Aunt Josephine's (Meryl Streep of “The Manchurian Candidate”) house perched on a crazy cantilevered latticework hanging precariously over the edge of a cliff, and by Uncle Monty's (Billy Connolly of “The Last Samurai”) snake filled Victorian house with its vast greenhouse and lush plants, surrounded by an elaborate English garden. Even the Baudelaire House, though we see it only briefly in the film, seems like an elaborate construction from a bygone era.

In addition to the fine performances by Carrey, the kids, Streep and Connolly, there is another good supporting performance by by Timothy Spall (of “All or Nothing”) as the clueless banker, Mr. Poe. Like the book, there is a funny “warning” at the beginning of the movie that this is no ordinary children's story. In essence, it is dark and depressing, but it is also funny and inspiring as the kids find inner strength and wisdom to successfully combat evil. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2004 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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