I first stumbled upon Freddie Highmore in Two Brothers,
the 2004 film in which he portrayed a young boy with a pet tiger that
eventually had to turned out of the house, only to be reunited with him
months later. His performance impressed me, and I've kept an eye out for
his movies ever since. The most recent was The Spiderwick Chronicles,
a fantastical tale about three siblings who unearth some very
unsettling secrets about the rambling home they have just occupied.
The Spiderwick Chronicles
are a series of five books for intermediate readers. I've been aware of
them for years, but I never read them. From what I understand, this
movie covers all five books; I couldn't say how faithfully it adapts
them, but the film is entertaining from an outsider's perspective.
Highmore plays both Jared and Simon Grace, a pair of American twins.
There's an odd husky quality to his voice, but his American accent is
entirely convincing. At first I had a little trouble keeping the twins
straight, but Highmore made them distinct enough from each other that I
eventually managed. Jared is the one who happens upon the titular
volume, a compendium of information about magical beings that could be
very dangerous in the wrong hands. He soon discovers that his house is
surrounded by such creatures, though seeing them requires either a
special eyepiece or a deeper level of vision bestowed by a hobgoblin
(Seth Rogen). The only exception is Thimbletack (Martin Short), a
curious little fellow who is Jared's staunchest ally in the magical
world.
The movie is a rousing adventure filled with CGI, to a
sometimes distracting extent. I almost preferred the scenes in which the
beasts were invisible and liked the way the theme of proper sight
played out over the film. I also liked the family dynamic; the twins
fight to keep their home and defeat their shape-shifting nemesis
Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) with the help of their spunky sister Mallory
(Sarah Bolger), while struggling to come to grips with the separation of
their mom (Mary-Louise Parker) and dad (Andrew McCarthy).
The most affecting performance came from Joan Plowright
as the children's aunt Lucinda, long institutionalized for her
assertion that her father (David Strathairn) was carried off by fairies
when she was a girl. For most of her long life, she has been craving his
return, and it so happens that he is the key to bringing down
Mulgarath. I found this father-daughter subplot to be the true heart of
the movie.
The Spiderwick Chronicles isn't quite up
there with the best fantasy films I've seen, but it's action-packed and
family friendly, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment