Not Too Unfortunate of an Adaptation

The end of 2004 marked the first holiday movie season after Lord of the Rings, which meant that there couldn’t possibly be a film that would create the same level of anticipation in me. Still, there were several movies in which I had at least a moderate interest, and so far I’ve managed to see most of them. A glaring exception is Finding Neverland, which never even made it to a theater in Erie. For shame.

A couple weeks ago, my dad noticed that A Series of Unfortunate Events had hit the dollar theater, and he offered to take me to see it that weekend. We went, though Dad didn’t have a very clear idea of what he was in for. He certainly didn’t expect the first unfortunate event, a glitch that resulted in his seeing a trailer for Pooh’s Heffalump Movie upside-down and backwards. I was getting popcorn at the time and was spared the opportunity to search for Satanic messages in the trailer that was so benign the right way around.

But to the film. I applaud the creativity of the opening and closing. The animated bits that persist through the end of the credits reward those few who actually bother to stick around until the screen switches back to its intermediary line-up of trivia and Coke ads. Meanwhile, the beginning sequence, presenting in an obnoxiously bright and cheerful manner the adventures of a happy little elf, calls to mind the fake cover so graciously provided to readers of Lemony Snicket’s Unauthorized Autobiography.

These are potentially the most self-referential stories I’ve ever read, and the film goes to just as much trouble as the books to warn us of impending danger and offer a more palatable alternative. Jude Law, hunched over an antiquated typewriter, provides the doleful, sympathetic voice of Lemony Snicket himself. That narratorial presence is my favorite part of the books, and Law inhabits the role naturally, his vocal timbre a perfect match for Snicket’s warnings and foreshadowing.

The other most impressive on-screen presence is, of course, Jim Carrey. As the film was
promoted, Count Olaf was about the only part of the movie anyone seemed to care about. Carrey camps it up as much as he can, making Olaf a little less sinister and a little more ludicrous. I saw Carrey promoting the movie on Letterman, and he explained that his take on Olaf was a wannabe actor who is very bad at what he does. All of his characterizations are over-the-top and easy to see through; though he reappears in several different guises, the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans recognize him immediately each time (though their incompetent legal representative, Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall) can never see it until it is too late). As in the Austin Powers films, the villain is the most comical character. Of his later incarnations, I find Stefano, the man who comes to assist the reptile-loving Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly), quite irritating, but I love his role as the crusty old sea captain who woos paranoid Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep). This is fortunate for me, since I adore Uncle Monty but find Aunt Josephine extremely grating.

The orphans, particularly Violet (Emily Browning) and Klaus (Liam Aiken), spend most of the film looking quite somber. Infant Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) seems to take a brighter view of things, adopting a disposition to match her name. Violet and Klaus are fine, but Sunny gets on my nerves, mainly because of her sarcastic comments (which appear in subtitles as she can only make a series of babyish sounds). The younger members of the audience found this very amusing, but I thought the remarks were stupid and very out of keeping with the style of the book. Snicket does frequently provide possible translations for Sunny’s gurgling, but these speculative bits of dialogue are droll and worth a chuckle. In the film, they’re just going for cheap laughs, and it degrades the integrity of Snicket’s idiosyncratic linguistic usage.

As I mentioned before, Uncle Monty, the affectionate, eccentric snake collector, is a character I hold in high regard. When I read the book, I fell in love with him after some trepidation, initially fearing that he might be as untrustworthy as Count Olaf. He soon became my favorite character in the series up to that point, so I was pleased to see him make the transition to film so well. I did not pick up on his being Scottish in the book, so that was a nice surprise as well. The lilting melody he sings to the orphans with the aid of one of his favorite snakes was one of the film’s high points for me.

Several high-profile actors put in an appearance in the film, most oddly Dustin Hoffman in a very brief role as a theater critic and Gilbert Gottfried uttering just one squawk as a very familiar-looking duck. It’s not so much the actors, though, as the set design that captures the attention. The film is gorgeously grotesque, and every set piece (with the exception of those used in the opening sequence) has a bit of a gothic feel to it.

The film combines the first three books and takes considerable liberties with the material. We still wind up with the ending from the first book, though it is considerably altered to make for a more acceptably dramatic movie climax. While the conclusion is rather dreary and certainly open-ended enough to allow for a sequel, Law’s narration prevents it from seeming like a true unhappy ending. In fact, the film’s last words are “In that sense, they were very fortunate indeed.” Well, I guess a little thread of warm and fuzzy running through all that darkness can’t hurt.

The movie is not as good as the books, but it’s a pretty good adaptation, especially in visual terms. Fans of the books should check it out. And if they can get past the inherent oddity of the movie, as my dad eventually did, the unindoctrinated may just be inspired to pick up one of Mr. Snicket’s books themselves.

Lord Almighty, Jim Carrey Plays God and Grace Overcomes Groans

At the beginning of this summer, after I graduated from college and was sitting around with nothing in particular to do, my mom suggested I go to a bunch of movies this summer on opening day and submit a review to the local newspaper. My first attempt was going to be Bruce Almighty, and I went and saw it on the first night. But somehow, I never got around to reviewing it. After a year straight of frantically writing for school, I just couldn’t get up the motivation to write anything, not even a movie review. I abandoned the plan then and there. So here I am reviewing the movie three months later. Better late than never, I guess!

I first heard of Bruce Almighty when I went to see Don McLean’s free concert in Buffalo last summer. One of the opening bands, Tom Stahl and the Dangerfields, introduced a song they had written about being God for a day by claiming it would be featured in the upcoming Jim Carrey film Bruce Almighty, filmed in Buffalo and centered around an ordinary guy who becomes God. They later admitted their song wouldn’t be in the movie, but we made a mental note of the film as something that might be worth checking out.

I had my reservations about this film. My first exposure to Jim Carrey was Ace Ventura, and other films such as the sequel, Dumb and Dumber, and Liar, Liar featured a manic, gross-out Jim whose appeal was strongest among pre-teen boys. Though I have to admit that ultimately, Liar, Liar was a pretty good movie… but there was a whole lot of malarkey along the way. Jim’s recent films have, for the most part, been much calmer. I loved his performance in The Truman Show, and The Majestic was great as well. Not to mention that unexpected bit part in Simon Birch. He seems to be veering away from gross-out comedy and into everyday nice guy roles, in which he comes across as very sweet and sincere. I hope he continues in that vein. Nonetheless, this film sounded to me like an excuse for Jim to go nuts with his manic energy and leave a whole lot of blasphemy in his wake. I was pleasantly surprised.

That’s not to say there is no over-the-top or crude humor in this film, because there is. Just far less than I expected. Bruce’s (Jim Carrey) dog delights in defiling the furniture, and we get to see him do it on a number of occasions. When he gets God’s powers, Bruce uses them for such noble purposes as sending a breeze up a leggy woman’s skirt, enhancing his girlfriend Grace’s (Jennifer Anniston) chest, and reducing his rival anchor to a blithering idiot on live television. And there is, of course, some foul language. But compared to some of Carrey’s early efforts, this movie is very tame. And, surprise surprise, it manages to be reverent as well.

Bruce is a guy who feels like the world is against him. When he gets passed up for promotion in favor of the boss’ pet anchor, humiliates himself on live television as the news is broken to him, and gets beaten up by thugs when he tries to defend a homeless man, he thinks his life can’t get much worse. Grace urges him to have some patience and trust God, but Bruce counters with his theory that God’s a cruel puppet master who couldn’t care less about the well-being of his creations. After demanding a sign from God (which he receives, but fails to notice, in the form of road signs that he passes in his car), Bruce launches a tirade against the Almighty.

Next thing he knows, his phone is ringing off the hook, always from a mysterious number he has never seen before (incidentally, a real number – several people in the United States were bombarded with phone calls after moviegoers jotted down the number and called it, leaving their questions and comments for God). Finally, he calls and is directed to a building where he meets Morgan Freeman in three incarnations: a janitor, an electrician, and God. God offers Bruce the use of His powers for a while to see if he can handle it. When he realizes that he actually does have God’s powers, Bruce has a grand old time, doing fancy tricks and, for the most part, advancing his career by creating catastrophes and being the first to report on them. But being God isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as Bruce discovers when he sees the list of unanswered prayers awaiting him. When he takes the easy way out and answers “yes” to everyone’s pleas, havoc ensues. Meanwhile, he’s too caught up in his new role as star newscaster to pay much attention to Grace, and her patience reaches its limits. By the end of the film, Bruce is in quite a mess, and getting himself out of it will require a radical change in lifestyle and a little divine assistance.

Bruce is a pretty likable character in this movie. He’s a decent guy, just down on his luck. Jim’s manic antics come into play mostly when he is trying out his powers, as well as when he does goofy features for the news. For instance, in the opening segment, he parodies Chariots of Fire (again – a similar parody appeared in The Grinch) by running down a line of people with cups in their hands and pouring milk as he goes. A pretty messy moment. (There are several other parodies in the film as well, including a scene reminiscent of the John-Coffey-spitting-out-bugs scenes in The Green Mile and several allusions to The Ten Commandments.) There’s a lot of comedy in this movie, and he is the source for much of it. But it is in his serious moments that he really shines, particularly in his life-altering conversations with God.

Jennifer Anniston is brings a lot of sweetness to the role of Grace. Unlike in the recent film of that title, she really is a “good girl.” And she loves Bruce but feels like she’s not getting much love in return. One thing that caught me off-guard – as well as several others I talked to – was the fact that the two were not married. They live as though they are married, and we don’t learn until the middle of the film that Grace is waiting for a proposal. It’s not a huge deal, certainly nothing deviating from the norm depicted in movies nowadays, but those steamy pre-marital scenes detract just a bit from the reverent feel of the film. But then the film has a lot to do with redemption, so it makes sense that not everything about the main characters’ lives would fit the perfect Judeo-Christian mold.

As God, Morgan Freeman does a fantastic job. He is distinguished but down-to-earth with a gentle sense of humor that makes Him especially endearing. I think it’s the most appealing version of God I have seen on film. At its heart, this is a religious movie, and the director, a devout Catholic, conferred with a clergyman friend of his for advice on what God should say. Freeman’s God is active and deeply concerned for the affairs of His people, but He also encourages them to take responsibility for themselves. “Be the miracle” is the film’s closing sentiment, leaving viewers with the feeling that we should put our trust in a benevolent God but not expect Him to do everything for us. We can make a positive difference in our own lives and the lives of others each and every day.

In the end, then, this is a very worthwhile and reverent movie with enough comedy and drama to keep it entertaining and enough spiritual substance to warrant a sermon or Sunday school discussion. It was much better than I expected, and its merits overcome its low points. As Bruce was so fond of saying in the film, “It’s good!”