The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) (nat)

I wanted more fairies. I like fairies and they're not so much in the movie. These pretty little flower fairies make an appearance once and then they are in the credits but they don't play any sort of role in the film. Fairies are better than goblins.

Anyway, so the film is about a family, sans dad thanks to an implied impending divorce, that moves into an old house bequeathed to the mother by a great aunt who was sent to an asylum in her youth. Freddie Highmore plays twins, the rebellious Jared and the milquetoast Simon, an actress I don't know is their older fencing sister, Mallory, and Mary-Louise Parker is their mother, Helen. Once ensconced in the house despite Jared's objections and incessant calls to his father to rescue him, Jared finds a book with a note warning him not to read it or his life will be in danger. Jared reads it and the house is almost immediately swarmed by goblins. (Not fairies, goblins.) So Jared, the misfit, has to not only convince everyone that he's not destined to share a room with his loony aunt but he has to save his family and the world (seen and unseen, i.e. the fairies we don't get in the film).

The movie works but it could be better. It’s only a little over an hour and a half—wonders could be done with the half an hour the movie could legitimately claim. Of course, I wanted fairies but part of the issue with the movie is that while the goblins, specifically the head shape-shifting nasty goblin, want the book so they can destroy the world of humans and the unseen world of fairies et al, we don’t so much see that unseen world. We get a brownie that lives in the house and a hobgoblin whose family has been killed by goblins (because the goblins got that page from the book) and we get some little dandelion looking things for just a minute but that’s it besides a handful of fairies that live with the great aunt. That’s only two characters, a few fairies, and some dust-looking stuff. I’m not convinced that there’s much in this unseen world and, therefore, not so concerned about the goblins getting the book. We do see how the goblins are nasty and hurt humans—that’s readily established.

I’m also not a fan of the same actor playing twins game. That should have ended with Hayley Mills. I just think it puts a ton of pressure on such a young actor to not only carry a film but to then play a lesser character as well. And the plot could have been super-easily changed to make them fraternal twins, brothers, etc with no problem. I know it’s probably following the books, but I didn’t read those and don’t really care. But, I thought the movie was entertaining and interesting, nonetheless. (And I got to see another preview for Kung Fu Panda, which makes me very happy--although we did see a nauseating preview for an "Abigail Breslin plays an American Girl doll" movie—yick, saccharine).