Does Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events hold up?

Let’s find out: 

So we start off by meeting Lemony Snicket (voiced by a fantastic Jude Law), and…

Law captures the troubled and tragic romantic hero element of Snicket well. Plus, he has a great narrator’s voice. 

The Littlest Elf segment works great and it works great with the Snicket making fun of saccharine children’s stories motif.

We then meet:

1. Violet Baudelaire (Emily Browning)- the inventor.

2. Klaus Baudelaire (Liam Aiken)- the bookworm. As a glasses-wearing kid, I was kind of disappointed that they She’s All That‘d/The Princess Diaries‘d Klaus’ glasses for this movie.

3.  Sunny Baudelaire (Kara and Shelby Hoffman). I don’t know why Sunny is so happy in this movie. In the books, she is miserable. Some practical effects work/CGI might have worked (if it wouldn’t have looked creepy). 

Anyway, Violet, Klaus and Sunny’s parents die. They are sent to live with Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), and…

I know people who think that Carrey was miscast. I know people who love Jim Carrey as Count Olaf. I am part of the first group. While Jim Carrey nails part of Count Olaf’s voice, a good chunk of the film is devoted to him doing stand-up comedy routines to entertain himself/ the cast/the crew/the audience and, while that would’ve been a fine and fun bonus feature on the DVD, someone made the baffling decision to film it and put it in the movie. Count Olaf in the books was funny; but, he was darkly funny. The same goes for Olaf’s troupe. The evil stepmother from A Cinderella Story should not have been part of Olaf’s troupe. If Nickelodeon had had the guts to go the Coraline route with this and there are hints of that route, it could have been amazing.

Anyway, Olaf mistreats the children and Mr. Poe (a well-cast Timothy Spall) takes the kids away from him.

The children are sent to live with Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly). Count Olaf shows up in disguise as Stephano.  Count Olaf kills Monty and he tries to blame the Incredibly Deadly Viper; but, Sunny proves the snake’s innocence. I know that I sound like a broken record; but, I still preferred the books.

Anyway, the children are then sent to live with Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep). Count Olaf shows up in disguise as Captain Sham. Josephine (allegedly) kills herself; but, the children figure out that Count Olaf made her fake her death, the kids find Josephine, leeches go after Josephine, Count Olaf “saves” the kids and Mr. Poe is convinced.

We then get “The Marvelous Marriage” play, and…

I know that some people had a problem with the end of The Bad Beginning AFTER the end of The Wide Window; but, I did not. The Reptile Room ends with the Baudelaires trying to prove that Count Olaf killed Uncle Monty. The Wide Window ends with the Baudelaires trying to find and finding Aunt Josephine. The Bad Beginning ends with Count Olaf trying to marry Violet. The end of The Bad Beginning is the most entertaining.

Anyway, Klaus believes that Count Olaf is using the play so that he can marry Violet and get his hands on that sweet, sweet Baudelaire fortune. Olaf uses Sunny as collateral, the play proceeds and Klaus winds up burning the marriage certificate. 

Mr. Poe takes Violet, Klaus and Sunny to what is left of their former home, and…

That was… nice of him.

Anyway, we get a V.F.D. tease and the Baudelaires can rely on each other.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is an uneven adaptation. Law is great as Snicket, the movie occasionally matches the tone of the books, Browning is good, Aiken is good as Klaus and they could’ve handled Sunny better. If Nickelodeon hadn’t tried to sweeten the source material/rely on celebrity power/if they had gone the Coraline route, it could’ve been amazing; but, here we are. My recommendation? Skip the movie and read the A Series of Unfortunate Events book series.

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