movie: Lemony Snicket A Series of Unfortunate Events
starring Jim Carrey, Jude Law
genre Comedy, Fantasy,
year 2004
format Netflix Canada
plot: After three children become orphans, they arrive at three different homes with three different guardians. The only problem is one wants them dead.
Based on the books.
I sort of want to say that this stars Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey and Jim Carrey, as he actually in a sense plays three different characters...sort of. He's got the role of the villain who then disguises himself as two other characters in order to get the children away from their other guardians later on. I have to admit, I wasn't going into it with much faith given it was a children's movie, but I'm actually glad I sat through this one.
Meryl Streep plays the last of the guardians, who's character is a paranoid widow afraid of everything from the fridge falling on her to the idea of the doorhandles exploding. It's in a twisted way, a very charming character. The half Victorian gothic-half modern elements makes the film very surreal in every step; the colour palate blacks/whites/greys. The mood being set it never feels depressing, instead it just adds to the idea that this is a world outside of the norm. The staging put me in mind of the Cat in the Hat, but where that one failed, this one excels.
I also liked the idea that we never fully see Jude Law as he's always in the shadows as the narrator. Which adds to the surrealism of the whole thing. You keep expecting it to reveal him as one of the grown up children or to find out he's the son of one of them or something, but he's just the narrator.
what did I learn? I would love to say that I came away from this with a big a-ha moment, but I fell into the imagery of it so much that I was mesmerized, and didn't really look for any moral of the stories.
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