Hey folks, Harry here... Here's someone much more familiar with the source material, than I - who enjoyed the film quite a bit, much like me. This is a solid family fantasy film - watch out for spoilers...
Jonah Echo’s review of The Spiderwick Chronicles Hey Harry, My wife and I caught a sneak peek of The Spiderwick Chronicles last night, and I thought I’d send in a review. First off, at the screening we attended there was no Indiana Jones trailer. No, the lights went down and we were instantly transported into the world of The Spiderwick Chronicles. When I first saw those initial previews laying out the various fantasy creatures, and typical voice-overs warning of a “world beyond anything you have…blah blah” I wasn’t sure this was going to have much to offer. I have never read the books upon which they are based and so I was more or less blind going in. As the opening credits panned over cob-webbed rooms, taxidermy animals, and various beakers, trinkets and bones we see Arthur Spiderwick penning what will most often be referred to in the film as “the field guide.” Painted images of fairies, sprites, bogarts and trolls swim before our eyes and the sensibility I was expecting at that point brought to mind a snippet from Yeats: Come Away, O human child/ to the water and the wild/ with a fairy hand and hand/ for the world is more full of weeping/than you can understand. Well, that idea of a whimsical fantasy world bordering on the real, reminiscent of something like The Secret of Roan Inish(directed by John Sayles, who actually has a writing credit here!) or Fairy Tale: A True Story is not what this film’s about. In fact, by the end of this, there was another poem fragment brought to mind: The goblins will get ya if you don’t watch out! And, that, at its’ heart is what The Spiderwick Chronicles chooses to focus on- the goblins, trolls and ogres that would like nothing more than to snatch you up if you aren’t aware and clever enough to look for them. It has plenty of magical moments, but there is danger too, something sorely lacking in many children’s fantasies and it is this quality that makes the movie work as well as it does and ended up giving me a nice does of 80’s nostalgia. By no means is this a classic fantasy, or even a great family film like last year’s Bridge to Terabithia, but there is an energetic, creative adventure here and it has the sort of free-wheeling imagination coupled with creepy tension that often delighted me as a child. You see, Arthur Spiderwick penned a book that would serve as an encyclopedia of sorts to the world of the magical and unseen, a world that is juxtaposed just at the edge of ours and often overlapping. He wrote it all down, most of it from personal experience with said creatures and then realized, too later after the fact that various forces in the faery realm wanted to possess the book because of its extensive knowledge. Most notable and deadly of these is Mulgrath, an ogre who would use the book to demolish the magical realm and then turn his sights to the human world. Spiderwick seals the book and hides it away, and then we are dropped 80 years forward from that date to the main event-the arrival of the Grace family and the eventual discovery of the book by young Jared Grace. Once this happens, the film takes off like a bullet, and both the benign and malevolent aspects of the invisible world come calling on the Grace household. There isn’t anything breathtakingly original in the story itself and that’s one of the weaker aspects of Spiderwick Chronicles. The Grace twins (both played by Freddie Highmore in a decent, lively performance that isn’t too labored, especially considering the twin aspect) and their older sister (Sarah Bolger) who spends most of her time fencing, find the book and learn of it’s importance and then spend the rest of the story trying to keep the book out of the wrong hands. Problem is there are a lot of wrong hands. So, the story operates very basically and there aren’t ever enough details for my taste. We know Mulgrath is an ogre, and while his design is terrific and Nick Nolte as both the voice and the human incarnation is just naturally threatening, we literally learn nothing else about him. There are a treasure trove of critters in this and they all look great, but we find out only fleeting things about them, and the field guide appears to be written more like a supermarket rag sheet than an encyclopedia, dishing out only the most sensational secrets and failing to give a balanced view. There is a wonderful griffin that flies the children from the confines of the real world through an amazing display of icy canyons and sun streaked clouds to a place that is…somewhere else. The goblin minions of Mulgrath are lead by a toad-like commander who is dressed like a midget version of Long John Silver. There is a beautiful scene where Joan Plowright’s character sits on a porch, and the flowers let down their petals and reveal themselves as a species of fairy who dance and twirl around her. So much stuff, and often times, the movie barrels along and doesn’t expand on them in a way that would build the magic. There is plenty of that here, but it mostly moves the action forward and doesn’t give us that lasting impression of the creatures as specific characters. The two exceptions are the brownie Thimbletack and the hobgoblin Hogsqueal. These two play advisor and bumbling sidekick, and voiced by Martin Short and Seth Rogen, there is plenty that could go wrong but doesn’t. They are interesting to look at, genuinely funny and lively and keep the exposition bits of the tale moving along in a way that entertains. After that, we have the human characters and the script is better to them. The Grace family is experiencing one of those painful bouts of reality that is a much loved favorite of modern children’s films: the divorce. In this instance, its’ actually handled well, and acted well and the interactions of the siblings as they deal with this difficult truth feels real. Mary Louise Parker handles the harried mother who isn’t just asked to raise these three kids but also protect them from goopy beasts as a real and vulnerable person and that too lends a certain humanity to the story that isn’t always prevalent in the other sections. The subplot that ties Joan Plowright’s mental patient to the long absent Arthur Spiderwick(played just as he should be by David Straithairn)is a nice treat and builds to a poignant moment towards the end that helped give the film some additional closure and prevent it from feeling too much like an “installment.” The sequences when the monsters to come to call aren’t terribly frightening, unless you have very young children, but they are occasionally violent as the Grace family quite often maims or destroys the invaders as they attack. If the goblins were characterized more, we might feel the weight of this but we don’t and it never seems like a terribly big deal. It isn’t quite The Monster Squad, where you have the chubby kid using a shotgun on the gillman, but the same sensibility seems to apply. Overall, The Spiderwick Chronicles delivers what a family film ought to. I think there will be several children out there who are really going to dig this, and the monster designs are good enough that this could have the same effect that many of those great Harryhausen creations or Henson critters had on many of us as kids. If you have children, and you think they can handle this, there’s a good chance the whole family will walk away entertained. If you aren’t dragging a passel of children with you and your interest is more in the fantasy part than the family part you will probably still find enough to keep you entertained but don’t go in expecting a fantasy classic. This is a brisk, engaging adventure that pulls us into another world for an hour and a half, and that isn’t ever as easy as it seems. Take care Harry and co., Jonah Echo
