Children's stories can be horrible!
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Brad Silberling
Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Timothy Spall, Jude Law
12.
With a cast that includes Carrey, Streep, Spall and Law this screen version of the children's books by Daniel Handler seems strangely out of kilter.
The screenplay combines several of the books and brings us the unfortunate Baudelaire children whose parents have been killed in a fire and who have been sent to stay with their evil uncle, who plans to dispose of them in order to get his hands on their inheritance.
The film, with its dark and Gothic atmosphere, hasn't been thought out as carefully as is required in that not everything is explained properly, nor is the moral heart of the story developed.
Carrey, who can too often be merely annoyingly OTT, does manage to keep himself under control, but in doing so loses the menace his character requires; Carrey can never stop himself going for laughs when he should be going for chills.
Interestingly, this film marks another failure in the career of the over-rated Law, whose stock in filmdom is falling fast. And what is the magical Meryl doing in this disappointing piece?
2/5
