THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

Paramount Pictures/ Nickelodeon Movies
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Mark Waters
Written By: John Sayles, Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum, from the novel by Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi
Cast: Michael Kahn, Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, David Strathairn, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Martin Short, Joan Plowright, Izabella Miko, Andrew McCarthy, Seth Rogen
Screened at: Regal E-Walk, NYC, 2/12/08
Opens: February 14, 2008

To all New Yorkers who are thinking of moving away to a “better” place, maybe an old house that is perhaps more spacious, undoubtedly cheaper, go see “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” You’ll change your mind. You’re not only safer in the Big Apple, but less likely to have no-one around to help when your children drill holes in the wall with a broom, in one instance actually collapsing an entire partition. Mark Waters’ film, adapted by John Sayles, Karey Kirkpatrick and David Berenbaum from Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi’s child-friendly novel, is a visual delight, its principal image being a flight of its main characters on a big bird over grassy land and between mountains to a fairy-tale destination.

Whether the young ‘uns in the story, and ultimately even their skeptical mom, actually encountered goblins, both good and bad, is arguable. Freudians would say that since the man of the house left both wife and kids, the children are traumatized, gaining temporary escape by falling into a never-never land. Illusory or real? That hardly matters. “The Spiderwick Chronicles” is not only a grand adventure, chock full of frightening episodes with a nimble pace, but effectively scary, just the way kids in the audience want their stories. And how many movies come out so strongly for the influence of a book—in this situation an 80-year-old chronicle penned by the owner of a now-creaky abode with a warning: do not open. Didn’t the writer know that such an advisory would have the opposite effect on its discoverer?

Mixing the wizardry of “Harry Potter” with flights of fancy found in the “Lord of the Ring” cycle, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” is a big-budget vehicle that takes its audience on a ride to a place where one ogre, far more frightening than Shrek, terrorizes the inhabitants of a old, wooden house in search of…would you believe a book? In the twenty-first century age of iPods, computers, and the X-box? A prologue finds Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn) putting his seal on a waxen cover of his newly completed “Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You.” In Harry-Potter style, the book becomes a guide that could unleash the forces of evil, led by one ferocious ogre who has the power to change into a snake, a bird, even the father of two boys, Simon and Jared (both played by Freddie Highmore), their older sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger), and estranged husband of Helen (Mary-Louise Parker).

When the rebellious Jared discovers the book after a trip inside the house dumbwaiter and opens it, a Pandora’s box of creatures comes to life. Jared, never giving up on getting his dad back home and away from the woman he has moved in with, now has the task of preventing the ogre from getting the book, as such a loss would mean death for everyone in the mansion and who-knows-where-else. Good faces off against evil, as Mulgarath, the sinister demon, morphs into actors Nick Nolte and Andrew McCarthy, while Martin Short gives voice to tiny Thimbletack and Seth Rogen speaks for the appropriately named Hogsqueal—the latter leading the fight to kill Mulgarath. Joan Plowright turns in her usual reliable performance, this time as an 86-year-old Aunt Lucinda, eager to leave town and fly away with 125-year-old Arthur. Special kudos to Britain’s Freddie Highmore, who shows off a spot-on American accent. Highmore is still the cutest kid in the moves even at age fifteen when the film got made.

Despite the generous PG rating afforded to the movie by the censorious powers, “Spiderwick” James Horner’s terrific, dissonant music combines with James Bissell’s spooky landscape to provide nightmares for the kids in the theater seats for a week to come—some free midnight movies, in effect, for the lads and lasses under the age of twelve. What can be better than that?

Rated PG. 92 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online