Getting It Right
by Philbert Ortiz Dy
posted on Thursday February 14, 2008

Getting It Right It’s hard to imagine that there’s still room in this crowded landscape of fantasy films for children. Last year alone, our theaters were flooded with book adaptations and big franchise hopefuls. Fortunately for The Spiderwick Chronicles, there’s always room for smart, well-made films.

Jared Grace and his family move out to an old family estate out in the boonies after their mom gets a new job. It turns out that the house is the estate of their great-great uncle Arthur Spiderwick who discovered the existence of the faerie. He wrote down his findings in a book, which takes the form of a field guide. Jared finds the book and opens it, thus catching the attention of a ruthless ogre who seeks the information in the book so that he can destroy everything. It is up to Jared and his family to defeat the ogre.

This is a pretty solid tale. The script is really intelligently written, never forgetting that it’s never enough to just throw fantasy elements at the audience. What really sets The Spiderwick Chronicles apart is that it takes the time to build its characters and its conflicts. Things introduced early in this film pay off in the end in triumphant ways. The solid storytelling base really makes the fantasy elements shine. Similar films often take too much time reveling in its fantasy setting, forgetting that it’s the characters that make us care. The characters of this film are all pretty fleshed out, and it’s easy to get invested in them. It’s still not the deepest tale, but it’s a marked improvement from what we usually get.

The special effects aren’t the greatest, but the film makes up for it by being intelligent about its use of effects, and some terrific character designs. The visuals are bright, the monsters are scary, and it’s all shot well. It’s obvious that the director really knew what he was doing. Films with bigger budgets and better special effects actually look worse than this film.

Freddie Highmore has always been a cut above your average child star. He’s a very intelligent actor, and a fantastic storyteller. He doesn’t rely on easy tricks to convey his characters. In this film he plays twins, and it works really well. He manages to give each brother a distinct voice and personality, which is pretty astounding. Sarah Bolger is turning out to be someone to watch. Mary Louise-Parker has really grown into the mom role, and few do the exasperated mother better than her. The film also features some pretty great voice performances from the likes of Nick Nolte, Martin Short and Seth Rogen.

Between Harry Potter, The Seeker, The Golden Compass, and The Chronicles of Narnia, it might be easy to ignore the relatively small The Spiderwick Chronicles. That would be a mistake. This film just does it better by sticking to what makes all movies good: well-written scripts, competent filmmaking, and great acting. The rest of those franchises ought to learn a lesson from this film. Take a child to this one. It’ll be a good time.