SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
FOR THE CHILD HEARTS
by Vishal Verma

Rating:

What is it?
With Harry Potter MIA expected by the end of the year in India (hopefully) & and no chance to revisit Narnia before monsoon, "The Spiderwick Chronicles" should pass as a suitable substitute for young adventurers (and the grownups who love them).

Though it's missing the old-fashioned appeal of the best-selling books from Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, Mark Waters' (The House Of Yes, Mean Girls) energetic adaptation does have its own charms.

Two - of those come in the form of Freddie Highmore, who plays twins Jared and Simon Grace. Waters keeps the pace moving, and the suspense high.

But "Spiderwick" is a world designed for children, and most of the grownups involved don't quite understand it - on or off-screen. Of all the adult actors, only Joan Plowright, as the kids' sympathetic aunt, captures the right mood. More notably, many of the evocative, black-and-white drawings of the book have been replaced with computer animation that at sometimes feels out of place.

Happily, Highmore has no trouble grasping the task at hand. As both the thoughtful Simon and the brash Jared, he transports himself into this literal faerie tale with such convincing enthusiasm; he turns us into believers, too.

What is it all about?
Spiderwick opens with Mrs. Grace (Mary-Louise Parker) (note: nothing written after the actors name in the bracket means: No Comments) And her troubled brood driving to her family's ancestral home in Upstate New York..

Since Mrs. Grace is separated from Mr. Grace, seething Jared has seceded from the family. He wants to be with his dad, not his short-tempered mother or his bossy sister or his brainiac brother.

Angry with his mother about the move, the sulky Jared (Freddie Highmore – GR8) begin to explore the strange old house, and discovers a magical tome written by his great, great uncle Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn – fine). Soon Jared and his twin brother, Simon (also played by Highmore with the aid of seamless special effects), are drawn into a realm of goblins, boggarts, and ogres--a reality that coexists with the human world. By the time the boys' older sister, Mallory (Sarah Bolger), is in on their secret, the siblings are steeped in a conflict with the evil shape-shifting ogre Mulgarath (Nick Nolte - good), who will stop at nothing to get Spiderwick's book. Need any explanation … Hooh Hooh.  Hooh (stop it).    

What to look out for?
The film is graced with superior special effects, a sparkling musical score by James Horner and a fantasy-filled plot with a bit of moralizing.

The special effects - by Industrial Light & Magic and Berkeley's Tippett Studio - are magical throughout, from the hyper realistic creepiness of the evil goblins, to the flying griffin that transports the three kids to another dimension, to the dazzling, star like sylphs who flutter around Uncle Arthur.

What not?
With echoes of E.T. and the Harry Potter films, Spiderwick tries to give viewers a sense of wonderment, juxtaposing it with the floundering of hurt children trying to make sense of their parents' selfishness. The two elements however don’t fuse to the required degree.

Conclusion: ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ may not be the most sophisticated of the post-"Harry Potter" films, but that certainly it has enough to charm those who are child at heart.