Meet the Baudelaire children: Violet (Emily Browning)
the inventor, Klaus (Liam Aiken) the bookworm, and Sunny (Kara
and Shelby Hoffman) the biter. Happily the three spend their days
reading, inventing, reading, and biting away in the many nooks
and crannies of the massive Baudelaire estate. Precarious as they
are the children are mainly isolated from the external world by
the security of their homestead and indoor interests. But Lemony
Snicket (Jude Law), the intrusive narrator of the tale (think
Anthony Trollope's narrator in the Victorian novel Barchester
Towers), quickly forewarns audiences to expect the worst; that
their fairy world existence is about to be smashed by the onslaught
of tragedy, mystery, and mayhem.
Thus the beginning of the Baudelaire dark ages begins
when, suddenly, a mysterious fire burns down the Baudelaire estate,
killing the children's parents in the process. With no book, cloth,
or nuance surviving the deadly arson, the Baudelaire children
are quickly turned into the Baudelaire orphans and entrusted to
the 'good judgment' of banker and executer of the Baudelaire will,
Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall).
Determined to find the Baudelaire's a proper guardian,
Mr. Poe entrusts the children to the protection of the ambivalent
Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) and his gothic abode. Quickly the children
learn that the only interest Count Olaf has for the Baudelaires
is not their security but rather their very large fortune. By
and by Olaf begins to show his contempt for the Baudelaire children,
enslaving them to domestic duties and other personal whims the
villainous rascal can conjure. Eventually Olaf goes so far as
to try to kill the children by locking them in his car conveniently
stopped on train tracks. Of course when Mr. Poe arrives on scene
he quickly informs Olaf that the only way he can ever inherit
the Baudelaire fortune is so long as the children remain alive.
Mr. Poe then takes the children out of Count Olaf's care, still
not comprehending Olaf's true intentions, and then takes the children
to their beloved Uncle Monty's (Billy Connolly).
But Olaf soon smells out his fortune and arrives
at Uncle Monty's in the guise of a replacement scientist who uses
his wiles to kill Uncle Monty once the kids are at bay. Once again
the children are nearly placed in the custody of Olaf until he
reveals his murderous crime and the children are whisked to safety
at the precarious cliff house owned by their hypochondriac Aunt
Josephine (Meryl Streep). Meanwhil Olaf goes missing. But once
in the refuge of Josephine's far-off coastal haven, the Baudelaires,
besides not being able to touch anything, turn on the heat, cook,
etc. for fear they might die, do their best to remain content
and feel safe among the high strung agoraphobic Aunt Josephine.
Intent on taking her outside, they convince Aunt Josephine to
take a stroll whereby they once again encounter Olaf in the guise
of a one-legged sea captain. Flattering his way into Josephine's
lonely heart Count Olaf whisks her away to her home whilst the
children find food for dinner. But returning home they find Josephine
missing and Klaus uses his bookworm powers to decode the encrypted
message left behind.
Traveling through leech-infested waters of a deadly
lake, the Buadelaires rescue Aunt Josephine from Curdled Cave
only to watch her drift out to her death upon the arrival of the
cunning Olaf. Ironically, Mr. Poe shows up at the same time and,
believing Olaf to have saved the Baudelaire's lives, reinstates
guardianship to the contemptible villain. Still intent on inheriting
the Baudelaire fortune Olaf discovers that if he marries Violet
he gains direct access to the lucrative treasure. Staging a play
with a real justice so that he can legitmately marry Violet via
the pretense of a screenplay, Olaf begins to set his deceptive
trick in motion, enlisting the help of Justice Strauss (Catherin
O'Hara).
Meanwhile Klaus has set about trying to uncover
the mystery behind the Baudelaire fortune which somehow seems
connected to their parents' death. Ironically all of the Baudelaire's
seem to have died in fires. In a daredevil attempt to save his
baby sister Sunny from certain death Klaus accidentally stumbles
upon the answer to the arson mysteries. The Baudelaire's have
been being hunted down by the nefarious Olaf in his attempt to
snatch the family fortune one Baudelaire family at a time. Using
his eye-shaped magnifying glass, Olaf would redirect the sunlight
onto the Baudelaire estates, igniting the property and its inhabitants
in flames.
Klaus quickly rescues Sunny, saves Violet from her
almost marriage to Olaf, and exposes Olaf's villainous scheme
to save the day! But, as any villain will do, Olaf flees the scene,
leaving the kids once again to start over in the back seat of
Mr. Poe's car, justice yet served. But this time it seems, a long
lost letter from their parents will lift the chidlrens spirits
and teach them that "a series of unfortunate events may really
just be the first steps to an adventure". And so the Baudelaire's
would live together, loving and protecting one another their whole
lives thereafter. The end.
"Lemony Snicket's" is a delightful visual rendition
of the Handler novels. With Tim Burton panache, Siberling brings
to life the Gothic meets Victorian fantasy tale of the Baudelaire
children. The uncanny repetitions, the absurdities, the profoundly
unique characterization all manifest themselves in the decorous
stage sets and the wonderful performances of an A-list cast, including
a cameo from Dustin Hoffman. From Jim Carrey's many performances
of multiple caricature villain stock types to Meryl Streep's performance
as the agoraphobic hypochondriac, each character is so uniquely
colorful and distinct that in the time span of one film the world
gets a look at its many eccentric character types of dark comedy.
"Lemony Snicket's" is a wonderful juxtaposition
of "Nightmare before Christmas" meets "Big Fish" in a delightfully
dark comedy that exuberates witty one-liners and brilliantly subtle
humor. From elaborate sets to detailed color schemes and lighting,
to the intrusive narrator (very parallel to the portrayal of the
narrator in Moulin Rouge), Siberling brings to life one of childhood's
most beloved fairytales and makes it palatable enough for even
adult audiences. The film will make you laugh, snicker, chide,
and even shriek as Jim Carrey prances around the screen in his
nefarious getup as the contemptible yet mesmerizing Count Olaf.
This episodic fairytale takes you from one adventure
to the next in a visual splendor that will captivate the imagination.
Winning the Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup as well as being
nominated for 3 other Oscar's and winning several other critical
film awards, "Lemony Snicket's" is a delight for the whole family
any day of the year!
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Lemony Snicket's ... THE COMEDY REVIEW 
