Psycho's Movie Reviews #363: Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (also simply known as A Series of Unfortunate Events) is a 2004 American adventure black comedy film directed by Brad Silberling. It is a film adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, covering the first three novels: The Bad Beginning (1999), The Reptile Room (1999), and The Wide Window (2000). The film stars Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Cedric the Entertainer, Luis Guzmán, Jennifer Coolidge and Meryl Streep, as well as Jude Law as Lemony Snicket (the pen name of American writer Daniel Handler).

Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights to Daniel Handler's book series in 2000 and soon began development of a film with Barry Sonnenfeld attached to direct. Handler adapted the screenplay and courted Jim Carrey for Count Olaf. Sonnenfeld eventually left over budget concerns in January 2003 and Brad Silberling took over. Robert Gordon rewrote Handler's script, and principal photography started in November 2003. A Series of Unfortunate Events was entirely shot using sound stages and backlots at Paramount Pictures and Downey Studios. The film received positive reviews, with many praising its production values and performances (particularly Carrey's performance), while some criticized its comical tone and short length – only focusing on the first three books in the series. The film also grossed $211 million worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and received three nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score at the 77th Academy Awards.

Plot

In a clock tower, investigator Lemony Snicket begins writing a documentation regarding the whereabouts of the Baudelaire children.

Fourteen-year-old inventor Violet Baudelaire, her twelve-year-old bibliophile brother Klaus, and their mordacious baby sister Sunny are orphaned when a mysterious fire destroys their home, killing their parents. Mr. Poe, the family banker, manages their affairs and leaves them in the care of their geographically closest relative, Count Olaf. He is a stage actor and either their third cousin removed four times or the inverse. He is intent upon obtaining their family fortune, which will remain in the custody of the bank until Violet comes of age. He forces them to do heavy chores and belittles them.

Driving back from the court where Count Olaf has legally obtained custody of the children, he stops to go into a general store, leaving them locked in the car parked directly on train tracks with a train heading towards them. They manage to divert the train by building a device to remotely activate the railroad switch. Mr. Poe arrives and takes them away, thinking that Olaf was allowing Sunny to drive.

The orphans are taken to their uncle, Dr. Montgomery, an eccentric but kind herpetologist. However, Olaf arrives disguised as his assistant Stephano. The orphans attempt to warn him, but he believes he is after the Incredibly Deadly Viper, a giant misnomer snake, in his laboratory. Montgomery is discovered dead shortly after, his death blamed on the viper. They are almost placed in Stephano's care by Mr. Poe, but Sunny proves his guilt by showing the viper is harmless and he escapes.

Mr. Poe leaves them with their Aunt Josephine, a grammar-obsessed widow with panphobia. Olaf appears, disguised as Captain Sham, to meddle with their plans again. One day, Josephine is not at the house, leaving an apparent suicide note entrusting them to Captain Sham. Klaus deduces that Olaf forced her to forge the note, but she left a hidden message revealing her location. They sail to the cave where she is hiding and rescue her but attract leeches. Olaf appears and takes the children, leaving Josephine to be eaten by the leeches. Mr. Poe finds him with the children, and Olaf pretends to have rescued them. Mr. Poe is fooled and gives the children back to him.

Olaf plans a play titled "The Marvellous Marriage", starring Violet and him as a bride and groom. Klaus's suspicions reveal that he is planning to take advantage of the play to really marry Violet in an attempt to get the fortune, using legally recognized vows and a bona fide justice of the peace. He locks Sunny up in a birdcage, threatening to drop her to her death if Violet refuses to take part in the play.

Klaus escapes and finds a hidden tower in Olaf's house, where he discovers a large window with a set of lenses that, if positioned correctly, can focus the rays of the sun. He realizes that this was the method used to set fire to the Baudelaire mansion; Olaf was the real mastermind behind the crime. Using the window, Klaus manages to burn the marriage certificate, leading to Olaf's arrest. However, Snicket reveals he vanished after a jury of his peers overturned his sentence.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are taken to visit the charred remains of their old home one last time. A lost letter from their parents finally arrives, and inside is a spyglass announcing their family's secret society.

Snicket finishes writing his documentation and hides the papers in the clock tower for his publisher to find. He concludes that despite the siblings' recent unfortunate events, they have each other. The Baudelaires are driven by Mr. Poe to their next home.

Production

Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights to the A Series of Unfortunate Events novel series in May 2000. Paramount Pictures, owner of Nickelodeon Movies, agreed to co-finance, along with Scott Rudin. Various directors, including Terry Gilliam and Roman Polanski, were interested in making the film. One of author Daniel Handler's favourite candidates was Guy Maddin. In June 2002, Barry Sonnenfeld was hired to direct. He was chosen because he previously collaborated with Rudin and because of his black comedy directing style from The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Get Shorty. Sonnenfeld referred to the Lemony Snicket novels as his favourite children's stories. The director hired Handler to write the script with the intention of making Lemony Snicket as a musical, and cast Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in September 2002.

The film suffered setbacks in development in December 2002. Rudin left Unfortunate Events over budget concerns. While Sonnenfeld and Carrey remained, Sonnenfeld admitted he was sceptical of Paramount's $100 million budget. The studio decided that changing the shoot from Hollywood to Wilmington, North Carolina would be less expensive. The April 2003 start date was also pushed back. Paramount eventually settled the situation in January 2003 by enlisting help from DreamWorks Pictures to co-finance the film, but Sonnenfeld vacated the director's position. Rudin and Sonnenfeld had no involvement with the film afterward, but were credited as executive producers. Carrey remained with approval over the hiring of the next director.

Brad Silberling signed on to direct in February 2003. He was not familiar with the series when he was first approached. He quickly read the first three novels and was excited that "Hollywood was taking a chance to put over $100 million to adapt these inventive children's books onto screen". Handler, who wrote eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld, was replaced by Robert Gordon in May 2003. Handler approved of the changes that were made to his original screenplay. "I was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by the Writers Guild of America," Handler continued, "but I didn't take it because I didn't write it. I felt like it would be an insult to the guy who did."

Filming

Filming was set to begin in October 2003, but it was pushed back. Principal photography for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events began on November 10, 2003, using the sound stages and backlot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Director Brad Silberling avoided using too many digital or chroma key effects because he wanted the younger actors to feel as if they were working in a realistic environment. Olaf's mansion occupied two sound stages, while the graveyard and the ruins of the Baudelaire mansion were constructed on the Paramount back lot. After 21 weeks of shooting at Paramount, production then moved to Downey Studios, a former NASA facility in Downey, California, for eight more weeks. Downey housed the circular railroad crossing set complete with forced perspective scenery, as well as a newly constructed water tank complete with over one million gallons of water. The water tank was instrumental in filming scenes set at Briny Beach, Lake Lachrymose, Damocles Dock and Curdled Cave. Filming for A Series of Unfortunate Events ended on May 29, 2004.

Design

Silberling, production designer Rick Heinrichs and costume designer Colleen Atwood all aimed for the film's setting to be ambiguous, giving it a "timeless" feel. Heinrichs also added steampunk designs to the period. To contribute to the setting, Silberling hired Emmanuel Lubezki as the cinematographer because he was impressed with the trio's work on Sleepy Hollow.

Lubezki compared the cinematic similarities to Sleepy Hollow, notably the monochromatic look of both films. He also chose a specific colour palette backdrop for A Series of Unfortunate Events. "The story is very episodic, so we picked a different colour scheme for each section. For example", Lubezki continued, "Count Olaf's house has a lot of greens, blacks and greys; the house of Uncle Monty has a lot of greens and browns and a bit of yellow; and the house of Aunt Josephine has blues and blacks." The railroad crossing set was constructed on a cyclorama, which was the most ambitious set piece for the art department on using elements of "in house" special effects and matte paintings.

Visual Effects

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), supervised by Stefen Fangmeier, created the film's 505 visual effects-shots. The filmmakers used as few digital effects as possible, though the train and smoke for the railroad crossing scene was entirely created using computer animation. ILM also used colour grading techniques for the Lake Lachrymose scene, which required complete animation for the leeches. The digital animators studied footage of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season to accurately depict Hurricane Herman, which was ILM's most ambitious use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) for the film. Nexus Productions designed the opening "Littlest Elf" animated sequence by modelling it after stop motion animation and completing it with computer animation. The snakes at Uncle Monty's house were a combination of real snakes and animatronics. The animatronics, primarily the Incredibly Deadly Viper, were used as reference models that ILM later enhanced using CGI. Because working with infants was sometimes risky in producing a film, four scenes involving Sunny Baudelaire required CGI with motion capture technology. Among these are the shot of Sunny hanging on to a table by her teeth, catching a spindle with her mouth and the scene where she is entangled with the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Animation supervisor Colin Brady used his baby daughter for motion capture recording. A remote controlled animatronic of Sunny was also designed by Kevin Yagher.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was released on DVD and VHS on April 26, 2005. A Portuguese-labelled All-Region Blu-ray was released in 2012 and then an American Region A Blu-ray was released on September 9, 2014. The film was re-released on DVD on January 24, 2017.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 72% based on 162 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Although it softens the nasty edges of its source material, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a gothic visual treat, and it features a hilariously manic turn from Jim Carrey as the evil Count Olaf." On Metacritic, they gave the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune praised Rick Heinrichs's production design and Jim Carrey for having a balanced performance as a scene stealer. Elder called the film "exceptionally clever, hilariously gloomy and bitingly subversive." Desson Thomson from The Washington Post reasoned over a fellow film-goer's characterization of Count Olaf, "Olaf is a humourless villain in the book. He's not amusing like Carrey at all. To which I would counter: If you can't let Carrey be Carrey, put someone boring and less expensive in the role. In his various disguises he's rubbery, inventive and improvisationally inspired. I particularly liked his passing imitation of a dinosaur." Ty Burr, writing in The Boston Globe, observed, "Director Brad Silberling has essentially made a Tim Burton movie without the weird shafts of adolescent pain. At the same time, Silberling's not a hack like Chris Columbus, and Snicket has more zip and inspired film craft than the first two Harry Potter films. The film's no masterpiece, but at least you're in the hands of people who know what they're doing. The movie, like the books, flatters children's innate sense that the world is not a perfect place and that anyone who insists otherwise is trying to sell you something. How you deal with the cognitive dissonance of a $125 million Hollywood picture telling you this is up to you. At least there are no Lemony Snicket Happy Meals. Yet." Internet reviewer James Berardinelli felt that "the film is first and foremost a fantasy, but there are dark currents running just beneath the surface. I give Silberling credit for not allowing them to swallow the film. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events manages to remain witty throughout." Roger Ebert gave a mixed review: "Jim Carrey is over the top as Count Olaf, but I suppose a character named Count Olaf is over the top by definition. I liked the film, but I'll tell you what. I think this one is a tune-up for the series, a trial run in which they figure out what works and what needs to be tweaked. The original Spider-Man was a disappointment, but the same team came back and made Spider-Man 2, the best superhero movie ever made." Scott Foundas of Variety gave a negative review, criticizing the filmmakers for sacrificing the storyline in favour of visual elements such as set design and cinematography. He wrote, "A Series of Unfortunate Events suggests what Mary Poppins might have looked like had Tim Burton directed it. Not surprisingly, Burton's long time production designer Rick Heinrichs was responsible for the sets, while ace Emmanuel Lubezki (Burton's Sleepy Hollow) contributed the expressionistic lighting schemes."

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events grossed $118.6 million in the United States and Canada and $92.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $211.5 million, against a budget of $140 million.

The film was released in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2004 on 4,400 screens at 3,620 theaters, earning $30.1 million in its opening weekend and finishing first at the box office. In its second weekend the film fell to second behind Meet the Fockers, grossing $12.6 million. It was the highest-grossing film under the Nickelodeon Movies banner until being surpassed by The Last Airbender.

Budget $140–142 million

Box office $211.5 million

My Review

It seems to me that once a film of a specific genre/subject hits, the rights of every like-minded literary work on the book shelves of Books-A-Million (in this case, the children's section) is snapped up in a whirl-wind of studio shopping sprees. One such series was the enigmatic Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. The books are easily and quickly read, but they are not your customary children's books with the average children's story. These are much darker, and do not provide the happy ending most children's books insist upon.

Having lost their parents in a horrible fire, the Baudelaire orphans must fend for their lives when sent to live with the nefarious Count Olaf, their murderous uncle. Olaf is a cold, calculating, quirky would-be actor who will stop at nothing to seize the Baudelaire fortune but he discovers he can not touch it until the oldest of the orphans turns 18. Olaf is over the top in the books, and is not above murdering the orphans to achieve his goal.

This movie confused some movie goers as it was not based on one book alone, but rather the first three of the run. This film succeeds where some other recent children's book adaptations have failed. It is portrayed exactly as the author intended, thanks to dream casting, and solid adaptational screen writing. These literary works are very descriptive from scene to scene, and it transferred perfectly to the screen, thereby surpassing the aforementioned "other children's book adaptations" we have seen lately.

Barry Sonnenfield brought the beautifully Gothic comedy "The Addams Family" with him as he created the look for the sets and homes which the Baudelaire children would visit, thereby giving it that same numinous feel we all loved so much. It is as if this film were exorcised straight from the Lemony Snicket literary works themselves.

As I have already mentioned, this movie was an exhibition of dream casting. The Baudelaire children were perfectly cast and portrayed. Meryl Streep is beautiful and tragic as a Baudelaire relative, and Billy Connelly is a delight. Some critics have said that Jim Carrey was "over the top." I agree. He was as over the top as was the character he portrayed. Count Olaf, if you dare read the actual literary work, was as much an over the top character as anyone could imagine. Jim Carrey was perfect as the vituperative Count Olaf and is just as he is in the books.

All this dark and lovely perfect casting and performances, direction, and writing, is encased in a gossamer but nebulous cloak which conceals the enigmatic Lemony Snicket who tells us of these Unfortunate Events, by way of Jude Law.

He cautions us time and time again to leave, if we have come for a happy story with a happy ending, thereby making us want to stay all the more. Nice device which works well. Another such device which is developed from the series is providing a dialog for the baby Sunny by way of subtitles. That was brought straight from the books, as Sunny's occasional outbursts of a language only babies understand, often prompts Snicket to offer translations.

I've enjoyed the books over the years, and although the story is a bit out of sequence and order, this film was absolutely 100% successful in capturing the feel and the pace of the books it attempts to document to film.

Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events is every bit as quirky and beautifully dark as the Addams Family movies. I found this completely delightful and far superior to most works of this genre.

I'm a die-hard Harry Potter fan, so it almost hurts my feelings to rate this where it deserves. But in all honesty, it rates a 9/10 from...