The Spiderwick Chronicles - Update (Review)

As most of you know, David's newest film, The Spiderwick Chronicles, opened in theaters nationwide yesterday. We would like to reserve this entry for any Strathairnators who see the film in the coming days/weeks/month to share your thoughts on the flick. What did you think of David's peformance? His character? The other actors? The film as a whole? Let us know.

I'm hoping to catch it this weekend and will, of course, report back afterwards. Go see it guys! :)


So what are your thoughts on The Spiderwick Chronicles?

EDIT: My review is below.

I saw the film on Saturday. As a whole (and having not read the books), I found the film enjoyable. It's geared more for children, naturally, but it was easy enough to get into the story and characters and the "magical, unseen world" inhabited by goblins, faeries, ogres, etc.

That being said, I was surprised at how short the film ended up being (and feeling). The plot felt rushed, most particularly in the beginning and at the very end (the villians demise was particularly annoying and bogus to me), with the magical aspects of the story being thrust upon the viewer rather than eased into. But then, considering it's a film for families, anything longer might have been too much for youngsters. The writing team (which includes John Sayles!) appears to have done a clever job of condensing the books, but there are still loop holes--a major one having to do with David's character, Arthur Spiderwick.

At one point in the story, the Grace children must seek out Spiderwick to have him destroy the book and, when they discover him, he has lost all sense of time. As it turns out, he has spent the past 125 years hanging around in a secluded forest (doing what, we are left to guess) and walking around transfixed. He is not dead, but then, what has been doing and where exactly is he? It's bizarre and never explained. (Perhaps, I can only hope, there will be an important deleted scene on the DVD to explain this in the future!)

The cast is solid. Freddie Highmore's performance or, I should say, performances surprised me. He manages a terrific job at portraying twins with separate and unique personalities, a feat hard for even great adult actors to pull off. Sarah Bolger was fine. I loved her work in In America and, here, she pulls in a decent performance. The animated voice work (as well as the CGI effects in general) from Martin Short, Seth Rogen, and Nick Nolte are wonderfully done. The only actor who was problematic for me (and was a surprise) was Mary-Louise Parker. Parker is an oustanding actress, but in this fantastical flick she seems utterly lost..not quite in character and not quite with the story.

It's a first to see David in a fantasy genre, and it was exciting and strange and enjoyable watching him in this playful environment. Unfortunately, and as I suspected, his screen time is limited and his character is way underused (despite his relevance and importance to the story). But even with these disappointments, David manages to make Arthur Spiderwick a quirky, somewhat mad and somewhat playful character that--if left to another actor--would have gone completely unnoticed or remembered. That's one of the beauties of David's craft, and it was admitedly fun watching him partake in some of the animated sequences and even battle goblins. A later scene with veteran actress Joan Plowright is particularly memorable.

In retrospect, I only wish we could have received further glimpses of his character--a wish that I hope will come with the future DVD release.