Film Review: the Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Review:
Jared Grace (Freddie Highmore) is the reluctant hero in this tale of a boy who should take heed when warnings are presented. The Spiderwick Chronicles tells the story of a boy and his family who move to the countryside because of marital problems with the parents. While out in the sticks, the boy discovers a book left by his great-great uncle which details the secrets of a hidden world. In this unseen realm there are nasty little boogers about and they are motivated to steal the book from the boy so that they can rule both the world of goblins and fairies, but also the world of humans.

The movie comes in at 97 minutes and although that is a little above average, it runs at a good pace making the economically go by. The story unfolds from the get go. There is not any dilly dallying in this film. There is tension between Jared and his mother played by Mary-Louise Parker concerning the father, but they do not flesh out the subplot. I was quite impressed how they stuck to the story without accumulating any excess baggage. So the family moves into the house, the boy finds the book, and knows there is trouble about all in the first 15 to 20 minutes. From there on out, the story deals with how they are to overcome the obstacles and challenges now confronting them. They battle the goblins on more than one occasion, find their long lost Aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright), reconcile with mom, and tear up the house all in a day.

City folks versus creatures of the wood could have been an alternate title. There are several good scenes throughout and the computer generated characters work seamlessly with the surroundings. However, I wondered why they would borrow the griffin from the Harry Potter stories and does Hagrid know about it. Of course, the goblins could have easily been plucked from Ghoulies. But, nevertheless, these borrowed elements work well together. I should point out that there is another brother who is somewhat the comic relief and a sister played by Sarah Bolger who plays the older wiser sword wielding character. Other notables are Martin Short as the voice of Thimbletack and Seth Rogan as the voice of Hogsqueal. Nick Nolte makes a brief appearance as Mulgrath the goblin ruler. All in all, the film was sporting a decent cast.

Overall, I really liked The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was light. It was adventurous. It had some funny stuff happen. It was a bit tense at times. It was not gory, but there was a lot of tomato sauce. I would recommend you give this film a chance. At the least, go during the afternoon at a matinee price.

Mike's Rating: 7 out of 10 Flowery Fairies (Light and adventurous)
MPAA Rating: Rated PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements
Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes