"Lemony Snicket''s A Series of Unfortunate Events," based on the first three books of the popular children''s series, was
supposed to be the flagship children''s movie of December 2004. The movie boasts delicious visuals, Jim Carrey in one of his zaniest roles to date, and lots of unfortunate events. So what went wrong?
The movie starts off perfectly, with an unsettlingly cheerful beginning with dancing elves and smiling flowers. Then, narrator Jude Law informs us that this is not a movie about happy elves and if we do wish to watch a movie about happy elves, we should move on over to Theater #2. He warned us... why didn''t we listen?
"A Series of Unfortunate Events" chronicles the lives of the young Baudelaire children, Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken) and Sunny (Kara and Shelby Hoffman), as they suffer through - yes, you guessed it - a series of unfortunate events. After their parents die in a mysterious fire, they are sent to live with the dear Count Olaf (Carrey) - only he isn''t a dear but a greedy murderer who wants nothing more than to kill the children and claim their inheritance for himself. Though the authorities are too dense to catch onto his schemes, the children do manage to be transferred to some other quirky relatives, namely Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly) and Aunt Josephenie (Meryl Streep), but considering Count Olaf will stop at nothing to get what he wants... let''s just say not all of the characters live happily ever after.