Review of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) by Filipeneto — 27 Apr 2018

This film tries to adapt an infantile-juvenile story developed in several books, about the Baudelaire Orphans and the way they end up being persecuted by a distant relative, the theatrical Conde Olaf, that tries at all cost to be tutor so that he control the immense fortune that they are sole heirs. The main roles are embodied by Liam Aiken, Emily Browning and Jim Carrey but the supporting cast features Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly and Meryl Streep, among others. One of the things I noticed is that this film tells a story virtually unknown outside the universe of English literature. I've never heard of these books until I watch the movie, and even today I do not know if they're translated into Portuguese. I also got the feeling that the movie is an "unfinished work", in the sense that it was planned to end the story with a sequel that was never made.

The film does not seem to make sense, but I do not know if this is intentional and already part of the books, or if it was a conscious (and bad) option of the director and the writer. The truth is that this non-sense makes it difficult to understand, mainly for adult audiences. The film also has another problem, which may also result from an intentional choice by the director: the theatrical interpretation of much of the cast. I do not know if it was meant to play with it, making it an additional joke but it turned out badly. Jim Carrey is the only one who we tolerate these exaggerations because we are already used to his hyperactive way of doing comedy. Emily Browning is the most pleasant surprise. For such a young actress, she did a very professional job, promising a good career if the young woman stayed on the rails and strive. The film bets heavily on the CGI and this ends up being a double-edged sword because, if in a way allowed another type of jokes and scenes, on the other hand it ended up visually saturating the film. One thing I liked very much, though the majority did not care, were the final credits, elaborated in a very funny way.