Do we really have to?
Must we sit through another arcane book-based fantasy picture dependent for its entertainment value on overwhelming special effects and an arbitrary set of paranormal rules, species and vocabulary? It’s getting old now, especially if you happen to be old — children and stunted adult fanboys excepted.
So unless you are between the ages of about 6 and 12, either chronologically or mentally, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” may not be for your cup of goblin-killing tomato sauce. Its fierce confrontations with menacing evil critters may be too intense for the littlest ones. For the rest of us, today’s middling supernatural family film adventure lies somewhere on the quality continuum between December’s numbing “The Golden Compass” and the reliable “Harry Potter” franchise.
This one is based on Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi’s best-selling children’s book series. When you put aside the sometimes enchanting, sometimes labored otherworldly elements and computer-generated legerdemain, the character-based human subplot offers some relatable moments. This story line concerns a contemporary family adjusting to the initial trauma of divorce. Newly single and thus newly broke mom Helen Grace moves her three children out of the expensive city to the decrepit — and, as turns out, bewitched — small-town estate of her institutionalized, elderly Aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright).
Lucinda’s delusions about faeries turn out to be true, as the Grace clan soon finds out. Jared (Freddie Highmore), the one most alienated by his broken home, discovers Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide. Written 80 years ago by Lucinda’s presumably deceased father (David Strathairn), the hidden magic tome chronicles the secret folkways of faeries. The book is protected by a weird miniature dude named Thimbletack (voiced by Martin Short). He’s a mild-mannered “brownie” unless you get him stressed or deprive him of honey, at which point he turns into an ill-tempered “bogart.”
Jared’s more amenable twin brother, Simon (also played by Highmore), and older sister, Mallory, (Sarah Bolger) join him in an epic battle to prevent the villainous ogre Mulgarath (voiced by Nick Nolte) and his goblin henchmen from getting their paws on the powerful information in the Field Guide.
As directed by Mark Waters (“Mean Girls”) and adapted by screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick and David Berenbaum, the narrative enjoys only a smidgen of comic relief — courtesyof “Knocked Up” star Seth Rogan, who voices the bird-eating hobgoblin Hogsqueal. Otherwise, the focus is on the action of fighting fairy tale baddies.
But with respectable acting perpetrated by all, even with plucky young Highmore not quite conquering an American accent, “Spiderwick” works best in its few touching scenes about reconciling the abandonment issues between wounded children and absentee fathers. Of course, nobody will be going to these “Chronicles” for that.
‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’
***
» Starring: Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker. Nick Nolte (voice)
» Director: Mark Waters
» Rated PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements
» Running time: 96 minutes
