Western Oregon Journal

Looking for a movie that will lift your spirits and make you cheer? Then ponder this: would it be wise to buy a movie ticket to a film with the word unfortunate in it? Didn’t think so. Save your money for something cheesy like Fat Albert (God forbid if you do decide to choose that flick over a much better option). However, if you are like the millions of people out there who have so nastily decided that it is entertaining to watch three orphan children suffer, then join the crowd and collect your stub to see Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Once upon a time, in a book written by Lemony Snicket, three lovely and talented children named Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken) and Sunny Baudelaire (Kara and Shelby Hoffman) lived happily with their caring parents in their humble abode. Violet was an extremely talented inventor, Klaus was well-read and Sunny had unnaturally sharp teeth for an infant and a love for biting. All was well for this cheerful trio, until a series of very unfortunate events began to unravel. Anything bad that one could possibly imagine happening to three innocent children does. First they are orphaned, then they are taken to live with their dreadful second cousin, once removed (or was it fourth cousin twice removed?) Count Olaf (played by the boisterous Jim Carrey).

Evil Count Olaf pretends to care about the future of these pitiful orphans, but he actually has other intentions and his greedy eyes are set upon the fortune of the Baudelaire’s deceased parents. After entirely screwing up the pact of keeping the children safe that he made with the child services agent by “letting the baby Sunny drive a car” (there is actually more to this scene, but I will save details so as not to ruin it for future viewers), the orphans are willingly taken away from the care of the terrible Count and placed with other relatives. But the unfortunate events and wild rollercoaster do not stop here for the Baudelaire children! Count Olaf is at their heels changing his appearance at a glance in hot pursuit of the wealth left to the children. Finding themselves in and out of sticky situations and vile predicaments, the Baudelaires must team up and use their skills to defeat the monstrous Count and somehow live happily ever after.

Also starring the brilliant talents of Jude Law, Meryl Streep, Billy Connely and many others, Lemony is a delicious apple in the rotten barrel of crap that the movies are made up of today (with a few exceptions of course). Delightfully dark and entertaining, Lemony leaves the viewer happily depressed after leaving the theater, if that is at all possible. This movie was obviously targeted toward children, given that it received a PG rating and children star in it, but I found it to be much too depressing and violent for kids. Adults thought that the Harry Potter series was bad for kids, but Lemony is full of murder and adult themes­—something that many parents would not want their children viewing.

While the trailers to this movie may have been targeted toward Jim Carrey as being the leading star to this flick, the real praise should be going out to the young starlets who played the Baudelaire children. They, as a whole, made this movie, while it seems as though Carrey just makes a few cameos. I have read many places that Carrey was outstanding and versatile in this role, and while he does compose a memorable performance, it is not nearly comparable to last February’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I found that Carrey played the same old boring role that he always plays, making it clear to me that he has not yet begun to take on the “versatile” roles that he could be easily playing. Other than that, Lemony has a well-constructed plot with a terrific cast to play its complicated characters. To those who loved it so much, have no fear! The end is so abrupt that viewers are sure to receive a sequel.

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