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Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Alcantara: A Series of Unfortunate Events
By Jojie Alcantara
Witerary
Genre: Comedy
MPAA rating: PG for thematic elements, scary situations and brief language
Running time: 1:53
Cast: Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Jude Law, Meryl Streep, Jim Carrey
Directed by Brad Silberling
I AM a fan of Tim Burton. Anything from Nightmare Before Christmas to Legend of Sleepy Hollow cinematography works well for me in their eerie, gothic pervading sense of gloom.
Lemony's Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events, however, is not Tim Burton's, but reminds you in most ways as you watch and wonder if it was right to bring the kids to this pessimistic fantasy film. It is definitely the most sinister bedtime story ever, for both kids and adults.
Based on an adaptation from the first three series of a popular children's novels by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler), the film captures a dark humor that shows us a visually stunning world of gothic mansions, Victorian costumes, overcast clouds, a giant friendly snake, monstrous greedy leeches, a rickety house that wobbles on a cliff, and bad, bad evil adults.
Oh, and there's Jim Carrey, playing the sinister Count Olaf, whose character is a mix of mutant Grinch, the Goblin, and all the other ugly long-nosed fiend I can think of. Hey, I forgot, there's a bit of Freddie Kruger in him too.
Before I get too swept away by my gloom, the story follows the Baudelaire kids, once very rich and suddenly became orphaned -- Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken), and baby Sunny (played by twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman) -- and their miserable lives as they move from one strange guardian to another. A distant relative and a bad actor, Count Olaf is determined to claim the fortune willed to Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, whose parents died in a mysterious fire. He follows them and changes his disguise from one bad character to another.
Narrator Jude Law (unfortunately can only be seen typing away in the shadows, shucks) recounts the adventures of the three children as they run away from Olaf to reptile-loving Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly) to paranoid Aunt Josephine (Meryl Steep), who lives in fear of real estate agents and just about anything.
And does this movie have a happy ending? I'd better be honest with you. NO! In fact, there are few happy moments throughout the children's misadventures. What binds them together and protects them from these untrustworthy adults, however, are their IQs, resourcefulness and love in the face of loss and death. Klaus is the thinker, Violet is the doer, and baby Sunny is the biter. It is these characters that make you want to finish the movie to see if they're gonna end up as miserable as you are for them.
Directed by Brad Siberling, this movie is fascinating in its own brooding, funny way. When I watched a documentary of how it was made, I was awestruck that the spectacular cliff scenes I saw on film were mostly done in the studio over computer graphics and a bit of water (yes, that giant lake was made inside the giant studio!).
Count Olaf's character has also become a bit too irritating for me. Even with his many disguises, I still recognized the overacting Jim Carrey in him.
Still, its cinematography is so fascinating one feels like looking into a dark masterpiece painting set in another world of weary lost souls where no one seems to be eternally happy.
That's good news for suicidal, depressed people. They may want to jump into the screen to join that enigmatic, hopeless world. Hold on to your cinema seats huh.
MY RATING: 3 and a half popcorns. For Davao bisaya stories.Click here.
(January 19, 2005 issue)
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