If there’s one thing to curse JK Rowling and her ridiculously popular Harry Potter series for, it’d probably have to be the mushrooming of a host of wannabe kids’ fantasy franchises clearly intended to cash in on the public desire for more witchcraft and wizardry. What goes for the books goes for the movies as well, of course – in the wake of Potter, we’ve had Lemony Snicket (excellent), The Dark Is Rising (dire, as far as I know) and now we have The Spiderwick Chronicles making that leap from page to screen. And certainly it doesn’t seem like it would have quite the same cachet with tween to teen audiences as its predecessors – sure, it stars the family-friendly Freddie Highmore, but he’s hardly a star. Generally well-regarded thespians Mary-Louise Parker and David Straithairn, who can expect to garner some flak for ‘slumming it’ in a kids’ popcorn flick, aren’t going to draw the crowds either. So what contributed to TSC‘s solid box office? Well, turns out that, even if made for entirely commercial purposes, you can still create a fun, no-fuss kids’ flick that’s cheeky enough to keep adults entertained, and sparkly enough to rivet the young ones.
Anyway. Highmore stars as twins Jared and Simon Grace – the former a bitter young man furious at his mother Helen (Parker) for uprooting the entire family in the midst of a divorce that Jared doesn’t quite understand. So he grumps his way through the new family home, a dusty old mansion that – as is typical in these movies – hides the secrets of a hitherto unknown world. The key to the mystery, of course, is the titular Spiderwick Chronicles, a tome put together by the Graces’ great-uncle Arthur: a collection of the secrets of the faerie world, knowledge that could very well lead to its destruction. Jared’s refusal to leave things be, despite warnings from determined brownie guardian Thimbletack (voiced by Martin Short), unleashes mayhem that eventually pits the young Grace children, including eldest child Mallory (Sarah Bolger), against Mulgarath (Nick Nolte), a hideous monster bent on snatching the book for himself so he can take over… well, the world. (Cue maniacal laughter.) But the Grace children can’t do everything on their own – will they be able to trace their family line back to Arthur, the one man who can help them destroy the tome that now controls their futures but who was long ago abducted by mystical creatures determined to preserve their own lives?
So it sounds a bit complicated and silly – the movie doesn’t come across in that way though, except intentionally. The world that the film creates feels rich and is thankfully multi-dimensional enough to fill up its running time. We are quickly introduced to new laws and rules in the spirit world: for instance, that creatures of this world remain invisible to the human eye unless magick is wrought upon them (occasionally through the humorous intervention of Hogsqueal, a pig creature bent on destroying Mulgarath but who is constantly distracted by his greed for fresh live bird). Magic spells and curses form the framework of this universe, which Jared must navigate as he comes to terms not just with the horror he has unleashed upon his family and the innocent faeries of a world he didn’t know existed, but also his own feelings towards his parents and the unwelcome turn his life has taken. A little more heavygoing than you’d expect for a family film, huh? Especially in a nailbitingly tense scene near the end of the film when Jared confronts his father – trust me, the denouement of that particular encounter is not something you’d expect to see in a kid’s film!
In other words, the film is smarter than you’d expect it to be, and remains entertaining throughout. Certainly it remains the very child-safe cousin to the deeply subversive Lemony Snicket, but the film is peppered through with sharp, sparky dialogue, and while it skates by on shaky logic best encapsulated in a final reel that beggars belief in the way it wraps up the story, TSC never feels like it was written solely for ten-year-olds. Some moments in the film feel almost ludicrous – when the Graces attempt to contact Arthur, especially when Arthur’s long-grown daughter Lucinda (Joan Plowright) enters the picture – but the ridiculously strong cast means that these moments are more easily suffered through than they would have been in the hands of lesser actors. Highmore acquits himself far better here than he did in the maudlin, decidedly inferior August Rush – he draws out both brothers and makes them fully-fledged characters, the stubborn Jared as compared to the sensible, mature Simon. Parker lends some credibility and humour to the film, as does Straithairn, whose stately presence grounds the more flighty moments that threaten to derail the entire film.
In these days when enormous spectacle is more often than not prized above heart and humour, TSC is that rare success story: a clearly commercial franchise that somehow manages to draw together both elements while milking bucketloads of cash from its gullible target audience. With impressive special effects sprinkled throughout a story that ultimately remains focused on its characters’ emotional development, this makes the movie relentlessly fun to watch and reasonably smart. Which definitely means that there are far worse ways you could spend your time (for example, in watching August Rush)…
shawneofthedead 