The Spiderwick Chronicles

By Matthew Rodgers

Setting the tone early, The Spiderwick Chronicles opening credits feature etchings of magical fairies, remnants of dust collecting fossils and slime and snails, all with a soft focus luminescence that lets you know that you are about to witness something charming and magical. It’s just a shame that there isn’t enough pixie dust to sprinkle over every facet of Mark Water’s literary adaptation because it falls just short of the benchmark brilliance of The Bridge to Terabithia.

Based on Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black’s series of books Spiderwick, unlike recent ambitious franchise starters such as The Seeker and Eragon, decides to focus intently on the now with the self contained (and better for it) story of Jared and Simon Grace (both played by Freddy Highmore) whom along with their sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) and mother Helen (Mary-Louise Parker – TV’s Weeds) move into the dilapidated Spiderwick Estate only to find that the house holds secrets that go bump in the night and a gateway to a world of ghouls and goblins.

Taking a leaf from the Spielberg book of movie-making Chronicles uses that staple ingredient of all successful family driven adventures, patriarchal abandonment to create some fantastically believable character dynamics that really adds weight to the “all pull together” mantra of the films climax, executed incorrectly it can be saccharine but Water gets the tone of adolescent isolation spot on so that emotional investment is guaranteed.

Any film that claims “Tomato Ketchup really kills goblins” is clearly for the ankle biters so let’s not get too bogged down by psychology and concentrate on the abundant aspects of fun that it has to offer. There are menageries of imaginative creations; for the girls the flower fairies are straight out of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, beautiful in their balletics, and for the boys the goblin army are feisty and frightening. The pace is also as unrelenting as a summer afternoon play session but the subtext of family values is never neglected, no more so than in the moving climax.

An intelligent, if somewhat unoriginal children’s film that never patronises its target audience or alienates the accompanying adults resulting in an enchanting universe that you will happily get lost in.