Movies - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

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	Movies - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a 2004 movie, directed by Brad Silberling. It is based on the first three books in Lemony Snicket's popular series of children's novels: The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, and The Wide Window.

The film follows the adventures of three newly orphaned children (played by Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Kara & Shelby Hoffman) who try to escape from the deranged Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) in a series of different adventures. Co-stars include Jude Law as Lemony Snicket, Timothy Spall as Mr. Poe, Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty, Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, and Cedric the Entertainer as the Constable.

The film takes place in a highly stylized, highly anachronized version of the United States (the letter that Violet is reading near the end has a Boston address). As in the books, exactly where and when the story takes place is unclear, and there are many mixed messages. The movie has been praised for its creative sets and costumes, all of which have a dark, gothic feel, leading to a visual motif that is highly unusual and creative.

Taglines:

On December 17, Christmas cheer takes a holiday
Mishaps, Mayhem, Misadventures, Oh Joy.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
This Holiday, Christmas Cheer takes a break.
At last a holiday movie without all that pesky hope and joy.

Home video release

The DVD (widescreen and fullscreen versions) and VHS video were released on 26 April 2005. There is also a two-disc widescreen DVD Special Edition. The standard DVD package contains a single disc, however, Circuit City included a second disc with further behind-the-scenes footage and original trailers within "specially marked packages," but this "Circuit City Bonus Disc" only contains a fraction of the further bonus material that is found within the widescreen Special Edition package.

The Lemony Snicket DVD sold by Target also comes with The Blank Book, a small diary. The DVD edition sold at Wal-Mart included a copy of The Bad Beginning.

The Ebert & Roeper episode telecast during the weekend of April 30, 2005 noted that some copies of the home video included a "Two Thumbs Up!" endorsement. In fact, the pair gave the film "two affectionate thumbs down" on their show for the weekend of December 18, 2004.

Story

The film is narrated by Lemony Snicket (played here by Jude Law as opposed to the "real" Snicket, i.e. Daniel Handler), who occasionally appears in silhouette, writing the story on a typewriter in what appears to be the interior of a clock tower.

The three Baudelaire children - inventive Violet, bookish Klaus, and sharp-toothed baby Sunny - are orphaned by a mysterious fire that destroys their parents' mansion.

They are then placed in the care of bank manager Mr. Poe, who entrusts them to their "closest relative" - however, misinterpreting the phrase, Mr. Poe chooses the relative who lives the shortest distance away, the obnoxious Count Olaf. Olaf promises to take care of the orphans "as if they were actually wanted" but in fact he is only interested in the huge fortune that Violet will inherit as soon as she turns 18. In the meantime he treats them like slaves. In a controversial scene, Olaf slaps Klaus hard for daring to talk back to him.

Eventually, after a failed attempt by Olaf to murder them for the money, the children are returned to Mr. Poe's care and sent to live with their Uncle Monty, a cheerfully eccentric herpetologist with a well-stocked reptile room, who is planning a trip to Peru. Unfortunately their idyllic sojourn with Monty is cut short when Olaf turns up in disguise, pretending to be a replacement for Monty's assistant. The Baudelaires see through the disguise instantly and manage to warn Monty, but too late to prevent Olaf from killing him.

The Baudelaires are forced to move on again, this time to the shores of Lake Lachrymose, where their Aunt Josephine, who seems to have a phobia of almost everything, lives in a house precariously perched on the edge of a cliff, with a wide window overlooking the lake. The house seems to contain clues to the cause of the fire that killed their parents, but before they can discover more, Olaf turns up again, disguised as a sailor, and courts Josephine.

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