It's definitely not Jim Carrey's best film and performance of the year - that would be Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sadly, here he too frequently just hams it up. But if you can overlook his overacting this is a delightful film adaptation of the first 3 Lemony Snicket books (Bad Begining, Reptile Room and Wide Window). The production design is great. The script is very good (happily Daniel Handler and Robert Gordon didn't just follow the books from points A to B to C). It's quite funny. And if the ending is a bit drawn out and overly sweet ... considering the audience for this, I'm willing to overlook that. As to who shines on-screen - Meryl Streep is marvelous as Aunt Josephine, and Emily Browning and Liam Aiken both turn in very fine turns as Violet and Klaus. If you like the books you should like the movie. And it's a great family film too.
Posted by armand at January 3, 2005 03:42 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies