Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
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Les Désastreuses aventures des orphelins Baudelaire d'après Lemony Snicket (more)
Directed by:
Brad SilberlingScreenplay:
Robert GordonCinematography:
Emmanuel LubezkiComposer:
Thomas NewmanCast:
Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Kara Hoffman, Shelby Hoffman, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep, Luis Guzmán (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
After Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire's parents perish in a terrible fire, they are placed in the care of their uncle, Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), an evil fiend who is plotting to kill them and seize their fortune. The orphans travel from guardian to guardian, including herpetologist Montgomery Montgomery (Billy Connolly) and grammar-wise Aunt Josephine Anwhistle (Streep), but the worst guardian of all is Count Olaf. Plotting to steal the childrenís fortune, Olaf disguises himself as his assistant Stephano and ship captain Julio Sham and keeps popping up in the strangest places. Just when the Baudelaires think things are getting better, something unfortunate happens! (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (10)
Amazing stuff! The absolute king of the adventure, fantasy, comedy, family film genres. The story of two orphans who change guardians because each time they run into a weirdo. The film is full of black humour, tragedy follows tragedy, there is an absolutely diabolical Jim Carrey with his typical expressions, only that here he is very evil! The xenophobic Meryl Streep is also great – for example, she is afraid to go to the fridge and fall into it. 90% I recommend it to everyone, guaranteed fun. Made my day.
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I have not read the book and honestly, I do not even want to familiarize myself with it after watching Silberling's film. The film had an exclusive cast with a whole pleiad of well-known Hollywood names. It also had a magnificent production with a variety of special effects and a scene that indicates that the crew did not have to make any compromises regarding the budget. However, from my point of view, the result is very poor and my one star is only for the set design, which sometimes does its own thing regardless of the plot. The Victorian gloom of the film sets and costumes is more effective than the grimaces of the main villain played by Jim Carrey. I have no problem with his performance, he is simply an actor who adapts to the requirements of the script and the director, but the level of stylized exaggeration was dysfunctional and unbearable for me. Even a three-year-old child would realize in his uncle Olaf's disgusting grimace and vocabulary after three-tenths of a second that something is not right, and here all the adults pretend to believe even his least probable charity. It's simply too overexposed and for me, it would work if at least half of the actor's performance was toned down. I haven't even mentioned ingredients such as the youngest member of the Baudelaire family, that typical American innocent angel type, who already disgusts me with the first smile and whom I would dispatch without hesitation. Overall impression: 25%.
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If the story were overall a bit more polished and didn't have an ending that unnecessarily tries for emotions that simply aren't there, it would be an incredibly good film. It has its poetry, its charm, and it's incredibly entertaining, thanks in part to Carrey, who showcases himself as a great chameleon, but that's also well-known about him. It’s pleasant, but it's missing a little something extra to make it perfect.
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Jim Carrey's acting tour de force was perhaps a little too annoying at times, but the child actors were good, Sunny had funny "comments" at times. Meryl Streep, who had a phobia of just about everything, again delighted in her small role. The film offers a solid plot, decent visual effects (the house on the cliff, the leeches) and make-up effects (Carrey).
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If they had worked on the script as much as the magical, detailed set design, it would have been awesome. The expressive, distinctive sets are great, the fusion of old Victorian elements with the achievements of modern civilization is unique, and all I can say about Carrey's performance is that I haven't had so much fun watching an actor overact with gusto in a long time. But the whole thing is emotionally empty, you neither laugh, nor get moved, nor get scared, and the story is based on a simple plot and a stereotypical change of four locations. But I'm quite curious about a possible sequel.
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Gallery (131)
Photo © Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks Distribution LLC
![Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - Photos - Shelby Hoffman, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Jim Carrey](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/000/343/343122_f6caf2.jpg)
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