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	Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events
	Brad Silberling Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Cedric the Entertainer, Catherine O'Hara, Luis Guzmán, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Adams, Craig Ferguson 2004		Taking a trio of author Daniel Handler's mordantly funny children's books about the beleaguered but resourceful Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, and transmuting them into one blockbuster family comedy would seem to be a daunting task. The result, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," is uneven, partly due to the overbearing hysteria of Jim Carrey in his hyperbolic-wacko mode as the Baudelaires' nemesis — Count Olaf, a ham actor appointed by the court to be the kids' guardian after their parents die under mysterious circumstances. As hard as director Brad Silberling tries to capture the baroque madness of what Handler writes under the pen name Lemony Snicket, it's undermined by extreme Carrey-fication. And various details of the three individual tomes plundered for screenwriter Robert Gordon's script, as well as the overall arc of the series, are altered or ignored in the interest of an easier-to-digest package. Still, the kids who play the siblings Baudelaire are ideal, especially beautiful, spookily composed Australian teen Emily Browning as Violet. The superlative supporting cast includes Jude Law as the narrator, and Meryl Streep and Billy Connolly as other potential guardians for the children. The art direction, costuming and computer effects are spectacular. You can't accuse Carrey of lacking energy, either. Maybe this is just too Snickety … and not Lemony enough.


	Wednesday, December 18, 2024





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