Several years prior to the release of Netflix's iteration of Lemony Snicket's book series came a star-studded film encompassing the first three books of the series. Starring the likes of Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Timothy Spall, and Billy Connelly, this film was set to be the beginning of a series to encompass the story of the entire book series. However, there was a splitting between the two production companies that created the film and the sequel never took off afterwards, thus leading to the Netflix adaptation thirteen years later.
This film consolidated the stories of the first three Lemony Snicket books (The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window) to craft a single story, which kind of takes away from the story of each of the new characters brought in by the segment. Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine don't feel like they're on screen long enough to become truly attached to, since their segments are only roughly 20-30 minutes at most. However, the film did do a great job at heavily focusing on Count Olaf's dastardly deeds, which are really felt each time one of his schemes nearly comes to fruition.
The casting in this film was incredible. Jim Carrey plays a terrific villain in Count Olaf, Meryl Streep really brings out the inner crazy lady for Aunt Josephine, Timothy Spall pulls off the oblivious Mr. Poe pretty well, and Billy Connelly portrays an amazingly charismatic and loving caretaker with Uncle Monty. The children cast as the Baudelaires were also pretty good at portraying the main characters in this titular string of events. Then there are all the other side characters that are just bizarre enough to really thrive in the setting.
In the end, the film was an okay take on the books from which it was based. The combination of the three books was a little odd, and mixing them the way that they did didn't really lend itself to appeasing die-hard fans of the books. Although the later-on Netflix series would come in and complete/retell the story, this was as good as we could ask for when it came out.
Rating: 4/5 Marvelous Marriages
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