Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events has the same ingredients as the One Thousand and One Nights and the Grimm Brother's tales as it tells several tales within a tale, and each tale has a lesson.  The film opens with a blissful imagery of a happy elf, but this is suddenly crushed as Lemony Snicket's (Jude Law), the story's narrator, begins to inform the audience that this story will not be about a happy elf and if the viewer's came to see a story about a happy elf they better leave as this tale will not be pleasant.  Lemony's Snicket continues to explain that the film the audience is about to see will be both scary and unpleasant, much like the true tales of the Grimm Borther's.  Thus, be warned and let the story begin.

The tale Lemony Snicket passes on to the audience reflects the unfortunate events of the three children of the Baudelaire family, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny.  The oldest child, Violet (Emily Browning), is a clever girl with the hands of a brilliant engineer and inventor as every time she puts up her hair she begins to invent things.  Klaus (Liam Aiken), second in age, devours books as if it was as necessary as breathing itself and with his reading he has acquired a wide range of knowledge, which might come of use later.  The youngest of the three is Sunny who has the immense physical skill of biting and chewing on everything in her near vicinity.  Together the three children find ways to deal with the many dangers and threats that they encounter on a perilous journey that is framed with loom and doom.

Initially it is revealed for the Baudelaire children through the banker Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall), whose name might be a nod toward the brilliant writer Edgar Allan Poe, that their parents have died in an unfortunate fire.  Mr. Poe has been given the responsibility of finding a new home for the three children as he finds the closest, physically that is, relative Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) who is a distant cousin of the parents.  It becomes apparent that Count Olaf does not want the children as he refers to Sunny as a primate, and puts the children into hard physical labor in his crumbling house, which seems to be close to the home of Count Dracula.  Count Olaf reveals his true nature as he wants to get his hands on the large inheritance of the children as he begins to plot and scheme an unfortunate accident for the children.

Hopefully, most children are not too frightened by the tale of Lemony Snicket as the story he unveils offers much suspense, horror, and creepy characters.  The story is evidently not meant for an older audience as the mise-en-scene is extravagantly fantastic or horrific, which only a child could appreciate.  The performance by Jim Carrey is hysterically exaggerated, but it fits with the theme and the atmosphere that the film projects.  The plot is also unmistakably easy to understand and follow, which might be needed for a younger audience.  It is encouraging to see that the film received a PG rating, which encourages parent's involvement in the story of Lemony Snicket.  The parental involvement could further the child's understanding of the film as the lessons of the tale will advance the child's knowledge of the world and it's many dangers.  The film offers a truly a remarkable cinematic experience for a younger audience as it follows the footsteps of the Grimm Brother's and Shahrazad's storytelling where valuable lessons can be learned.

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USA

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