Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Score: 7/10

I've been waiting for this movie because of Freddie Highmore and I am happy with his performance as always.

The movie explores the lives of three children with their single mom. The children are Mallory, eldest sister, and twin brothers Jared and Simon. The twins are played by the talented Freddie Highmore and it is interesting to see they interact in the movie like two separate individuals.

The family moves to an old house left by their ancestor to start a new life. Before moving to the house, Jared is already a trouble maker, although deep down he has a good heart. His bad behaviors are caused by loneliness. He misses his father badly and he blames his mother as the cause why his father left the family. Some peculiar things start happening in the house and Jared always gets blamed for everything.

Jared is always a brave and adventurous boy. One day he explores the house and finds a secret book written by Arthur Spiderwick, his great grandfather. Soon he discovers the secret to see fairies and a magical world. He also meets the bad guy in this world who wants to get the book to know all the secrets and becomes all powerful. Then the adventure begins.

The movie starts brilliantly with some family situations, the discovery of the secret book, and the first revelation of the magical world. Unfortunately, afterwards the story is just mediocre. The end battle is also not special, although the CGI definitely looks good. It is lucky that we have Freddie Highmore (in double portions) throughout the movie. He successfully holds the movie together while portraying two different personalities perfectly. Rebellion, scared, bravery, anger, and other wide range of emotions flow from him naturally and they will touch you.

In general, it's a decent movie that can be watched by the whole family. It's not up to the level of Narnia or Harry Potter, but it manages to entertain me.

Some useful links related on this movie are:
- IMDB: The Spiderwick Chronicles.
- Spiderwick Official Website.

"Am I seeing double?"


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