A tale of one dysfunctional family and it’s battle with a power hungry ogre…
The Spiderwick Chronicles detail a story of twins Simon and Jared with older sister Mallory moving into a dilapidated house with their mother. The house is the Spiderwick Estate, once owned by their great grand uncle Arthur Spiderwick who vanished mysteriously leaving his wife and daughter. The twins though identical are as different as night and day, Simon being an intellectual and Jared the typical sharp-tongued spoiled brat (within reason). Jared’s issues stems from the split between his mother and father which led them to moving from New York into their Great uncle’s home. Mallory the eldest sister wields an iron fencing sword to keep her bratty brother in line whilst playing psychologist to her sad mother. Initially Jared is annoyed and angered by the house until a strange noise leads him to explore its secret rooms and lands the Spiderwick’s Field Guide in his grasp and his family in a desperate struggle to save the world. Arthur Spiderwick had found an alternate world, hidden from normal eyes which held faeries (not to be confused with fairies), brownies, goblins and trolls. Jared reads the book through and realizes with the help of a brownie named Thimbletack that his family and the world itself was in danger of the ogre Mulgarath. The book opens his eyes and the fantasy is revealed in horrific detail.
Pretty dark for children’s literature and the film held nothing back, Mallory is a young fencer and her tom boyish ways made her into quite the little swashbuckling heroine. I was not lucky enough to have read the actual books so leaving the prospect of comparison behind, I must say that I was very pleased with this movie. Freddie Highmore (Jared & Simon Grace) does a good enough job portraying the troubled youth but certain scenes which detail dialogue between he and his brother (also played by him) were very obvious… I blame this on the very bad angles chosen but it takes a bit to get used to it, but I was never really convinced that they were two different individuals. Sarah Bolger (Mallory Grace) and David Strathairn were probably the only well acted characters in the movie to me, though I know I am being harsh… it was just too hard to ignore Joan Plowright’s over the top act as the crazed Lucinda and Mary-Louise Parker’s blank stare as the pretty unnecessary mom. The CGI was decent aside from the laughable griffon and the equally ridiculous goblins. The cinematography did not pull me into the world like a Lord of the Rings or even a Harry Potter does, but all in all it did well. Having gone through the horrors of The Chronicles of Narnia and the many other attempts at children’s books to film, The Spiderwick Chronicles sold me. I really enjoyed the story.
I wouldn’t recommend burning money on popcorn and theater seats for this (unless you are super curious) but buy the DVD. I would definitely watch it again.
Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 364 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.
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