LEMONY SNICKET'S SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

US, 2004, 108 minutes, Colour.
Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Kara Hoffmann, Shelby Hoffmann, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Catherine O' Hara, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep, Luis Guzman, Jamie Harris, Craig Ferguson, Jennifer Coolidge, J Adams.
Directed by Brad Silberling.

When you glance again at Jim Carrey's performances of a decade earlier (Ace Ventura, Mask, Cable Guy), you realise how hard he is mugging and caricaturing his way through physical slapstick and over-emphatic enunciation. He is still capable of that but, after The Truman Show, Man in the Moon, The Majestic and Eternal Sunshine, he can do subtlety as well as broad comedy. His Count Olaf in this series of Unfortunate Events gives him ample opportunity for both.

The Harry Potter stories opened up a different world of childhood, contemporary versions of myths and legends as well as the dark side of fairy tales. These are the kinds of Gothic stories that Lemony Snicket tells (and we see Jude Law as Lemony Snicket in his attic writing and explaining this to us and urging everyone who wants a happy ending to leave the theatre!).

The three talented but bereft Baudelaire children are left to the mercy (well, no, the lack of mercy) of Count Olaf who wants to adopt them and inherit their wealth. Timothy Spall as their kind of guardian-lawyer wants to protect them but is cajoled by Olaf into believing his lies. The children's Unfortunate Events lead them to seek the help of their eccentric snake-loving Uncle Monty, a very kind and genial Billy Connolly, who is dispatched by Olaf, and the reclusive aunt Josephine, a pantomime dame Meryl Streep. Olaf turns up in various disguises to dispose of uncles and aunts and to persuade his judge neighbour to act in a play about a wedding while really marrying Olaf to his niece thus ensuring his inheriting the money.

Fires, snakes, giant leeches - there is plenty to make younger audiences to go happily 'ugh'. The cast enjoy themselves. This is a contemporary grim fairy tale.

1. The film based on novels, the target audience, older children? Children’s story? Sinister adults? Dangers?

2. The production values, the illustrations for the credits? The bright elf story at the beginning? The darker tone? Realism and Surrealism? The city? The streets, the burnt building?’Count Olaf’s house, interiors? Uncle Monty’s house and the snakes? Aunt Josephine’s house? The precarious house and its collapse? The orange sea, the cave and interiors? The boat? The room of the writer and decor, in shadow, his desk and typewriter? The musical score?

3. The warning of the narrator that this was a grim film, urging people to go to see something lighter if they wished? His continued narration, the dramatic points, his typewriter, continuing on?

4. The Baudelaire children, introductions, Violet as an inventor, Klaus and all his reading, Sonny and her biting – and the humorous subtitles with her ironic comments and noises? The news of the death of their parents, the burnt out house? Mr Poe and his driving them, their parents’ will?

5. The lady across the street, later appearing in the play as a judge? The house, sinister looking, the doorbell, Count Olaf, his bringing the children in, sinister behaviour, wanting the inheritance, the oddness of the house, locked in their room, doing all the chores, having to cook the meal and his dissatisfaction?

6. Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, his appearance, manner of speaking, comic, sinister, absurd? Wanting the inheritance, the treatment of the children? His troupe and the play, the rehearsal, having the central role? Wanting the dinner, dissatisfied? The contacting Mr Poe? The response of each of the children, Violet responsible, Klaus serious, Sonny and her being called a monkey? The Count taking them a drive, the stop for the treat, locking the car, on the train line? The training advancing? Their ingenuity, changing the points for the train to pass by? Mr Poe and the rescue?

7. Uncle Monty, welcoming them, all the snakes, the news of his assistant, the experience of the snakes, the Count disguised as the assistant? The children seeling through him? The snake, the upset, the death of Uncle Monty? The embracing the dangerous viper?

8. Aunt Josephine, her character, the touch of the absent minded, with the children, her caring for them? The sea captain, his wooden leg, the children knowing he was the Count? Aunt Josephine not believing? The return to the house, the open window, her disappearance, reading the letter, the coded letters and the message? In the boat, going across the sea, and achievement, finding the cave, rescuing Aunt Josephine, the threat of the leeches, overboard? The rescue by the captain, his setting aunt Josephine adrift?

9. The play, the performers, the preparation for the marriage, the judge, the devices for the Count to inherit the money?

10. Mr Poe, the final threats, finding the letter from the parents, the return home, the fact that they were alive?

11. The ending of the story, open-ended, the storyline during the animation of the final credits?