The Spiderwick Chronicles

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Directed by Mark Waters (PG)

Children find a dusty old tome in their attic that holds the power to rule the world.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

???

The latest child fantasy film, The Spiderwick Chronicles, seems “cobbled together out of better movies and homogenized inside a computer,” said David Edelstein in New York. Adapted from Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black’s series of books, the film traces three children’s adventures in a decaying mansion they’ve moved into with their recently divorced mother. The siblings—twin brothers (both played by Freddie Highmore) and their older sister (Sarah Bolger)—discover Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You in the attic and learn it “holds the key to world domination.” The rightful owner has disappeared, and now “some of the ugliest creatures this side of Jar-Jar Binks” are trying to steal it. The creatures aren’t that different from those in other fantasy films, but fortunately CGI effects aren’t the sole evidence of imagination in The Spiderwick Chronicles, said David Germain in the Associated Press. The “human characters are the main source of wonder.” Highmore convincingly gives both twins distinct personalities, Bolger keeps up the family’s spirits, and Mary-Louise Parker, as the mother, “stays grounded” while fighting ogres. The Spiderwick Chronicles proves to be a fantasy deeply rooted in reality, said S. James Snyder in The New York Sun. Director Mark Waters is known for bringing depth to lighter film fare. Here he creates a children’s movie that “ceases to feel silly.”