Oh so clever and fun

Examination by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre, January 27, 2005

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Envisioned by Brad Siberling
Conjured by Robert Gordon
Teleported from the book series by Daniel Handler
Dramsatised by Jim Carrey, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Kara Hoffman, Shelby Hoffman
GP / 107 minutes
Nickelodeon Movies/ Dreamworks Pictures/ Paramount Pictures
Opens February 23

Dear reader, I regret to inform you that this review is marked by unhappy words. Unhappy here means this is not about a movie about a happy little elf, nor of happy beginnings or happy endings. Lemony Snicket says so himself. You are wickedly warned.

This is the story of the Baudelaire children who, one miserable day, receive the most tragic news that their parents have died in a mysterious fire that razed their beautiful home. Instantly orphaned, the family banker sends the unfortunate children –14-year old Violet the inventor, 12-year old Klaus the bookworm and Sunny, the baby – to the decaying abode of their (geographically) nearest relative, Count Olaf. Relative here means a self-centered and pompous person.

Now Count Olaf is a seemingly kind kin, who promises to take care of the orphans “as if they’re wanted.” But soon the kids find out that the Count has diabolical intentions on the Baudelaire fortunes. The orphans must now trust their wits, their knowledge and their teeth to be able to combat their narcissistic uncle, stop a speeding locomotive, survive carnivorous leeches and, well, sharpen their English grammar. All these while trying to uncover the mystery behind their parents’ deaths. Unless you’re interested how the Baudelaires foil Count Olaf’s devious plot, you are advised to see a different movie starring baboons.

Transposed from the page to the screen, A Series of Unfortunate Events the movie is based on the first three books of the 13-book children’s bestseller by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler, voiced in the film by the talented Mr. Jude Law). It’s the first book series to knock off the Potter series from the no. 1 slot of the New York Times children’s list.

Two-time Golden Globe winner Jim Carrey makes multiple appearances invariably as the overacting dramatist Count Olaf and several cartoonish disguises. His Count Olaf is part Grinch, part Nosferatu and expectedly overdone. It’s not the first time he displays multiple personalities onscreen, as he did in 2000 with Me, Myself and Irene (though he almost always does so in each movie he appears in, whatever the character.) The children, especially Emily Browning who plays Violet, are absolutely charming. A pleasant surprise is the appearance of a quirky Meryl Streep as the ultra- paranoid Aunt Josephine. Ultra-paranoid here is synonymous to Baguio praningo.

Production Designer Rick Heinrichs, who won an Oscar for the design of Sleepy Hollow, conspired with Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Y tu mama tambien) to recreate the timeless and creepy world of Lemony Snicket onscreen. The movie has a Tim Burton-esque feel all throughout in mood, color and look including the costumes by Coleen Atwood although maybe that allusion is unwarranted. The closing credits is a short feature by itself. Further depressing the movie’s dark mood is the foreboding music by composer Thomas Newman (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Six Feet Under.) Unfortunate Events is a wickedly fun movie out to prove the cleverness of kids.

Beyond all the disguises, the secret messages and the use of colorful terms, the movie and the books are about the search for the ultimate truth permanently hidden beneath the layers of what always SEEM. What seems to be wrong grammar is in fact coded message. What seems to be an Italian scientist is actually an impostor. What seems to be an ordinary thing may turn out to be something special. And as the Boudelaire parents wrote their children, what seems to be a series of unfortunate events might in fact be the start of a new journey.

What is important is to keep on figuring them out.