CINEMA: The Spiderwick Chronicles
March 23, 2008Beware: scary gremlins, goblins and spooks lurk in every corner of this rather adult children’s film that has a refreshingly unsentimental feel to it. Based on the best-selling books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black this is a good, old-fashioned story with some surprisingly modern twists to it.
After the break-up of their parents’ marriage, the Grace children – twins Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore), and older sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) –move with their mum (Mary-Louise Parker) to the isolated Spiderwick Estate, once the home of their eccentric great-great-uncle. Traumatised by the family split and missing their home, friends and lives in New York, the children bicker and squabble, with the extremely angry Jared being the worst of the bunch. But when he discovers a strange creature called a ‘house brownie’ living behind the walls, things start to take a magical and decidedly dark turn. Soon, the three siblings are locked in mortal battle with a malicious hobgoblin for ownership of Arthur Spiderwick’s magic book and they have nowhere else to go.
Although the film is full of imagination, wit and humour, what really sets it apart from other spooky kiddie fare are the relationships between the three children and their mother. The sibling rivalries, petty jealousies and above all their resentment at having their lives turned upside down are deftly handled. Freddie Highmore does well to show the different personalities of Jared and Simon, while even the special effect monsters and sprites have an authenticity to them. There are some scary moments so do take these into consideration if taking younger children to the film. Dee Pilgrim
