The Spiderwick Chronicles
Rated PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
Now that the genre of "kids thrust into a magical world" takes up a whole aisle at Blockbuster, it's not enough for a movie to just throw in some cool special effects and a coherent mythology. It's got to have a good story to tell and, apparently, you also need young Freddie Highmore ("The Golden Compass," "Arthur and the Invisibles," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," etc.). "The Spiderwick Chronicles" has a great story and two Freddies, so it should be a winner. And it is.
The Story
Freddie stars as twin boys starting a new life with their mom (Mary-Louise Parker) and older sister (Sarah Bolger) in a big old spooky house in the country. Simon (Freddie 1) is a quiet and compliant kid. Jared (Freddie 2) is more adventurous, destructive, and a little angry -- especially with his mom -- that his parents are separated.
On their first night in the house, owned by their institution-bound great aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright), Jared follows strange noises to the secret laboratory of her father Arthur Spiderwick (David Stratheirn). There he discovers a hidden book belonging to Arthur, who disappeared 80 years ago. Ignoring a warning message on the book, Jared opens it, unleashing all kinds of strange magical powers while he reads through Arthur's "Field Guide" to a magical and usually invisible world that exists in the woods all around the old house.
From the book, Jared learns enough to know that he has angered a creature in the house named Timbletack (voiced by Martin Short). After appeasing it with gobs of honey, the touchy Timbletack turns out to be mostly friendly. He explains Arthur has drawn the attention of an evil ogre called Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) and his squadron of murderous goblins. They want the book to learn the secrets of Arthur Spiderwick's lifetime of research into the world of faeries, griffins, and other creatures. Mulgarath plans to use the secrets to kill all the good creatures and even take over the world of humans.
Jared and his siblings must protect the book. A bird-hungry hobgoblin named Hogsqueal (voiced by Seth Rogin) joins forces with the Grace family, protected for now by a circle of enchanted toadstools around the house. But if that circle is compromised, Mulgarath and his army of goblins will descend on the house hoping to kill the Graces, steal the book, and destroy everything in their path.
The Verdict
Based on yet another best-selling series of kids fantasy books, "The Spiderwick Chronicles" benefits from some great adapted screenwriting to create a story that doesn't feel like it's trying to force a book plot into a movie. Unlike some of these fantasy-world films, it avoids overwhelming us with too many details about the fantastical characters and the rules that govern them. Instead, we just discover the magical creatures as Jared does, one at a time and without abundant explanation. Director Mark Waters ("Mean Girls," "Freaky Friday," "Just Like Heaven") trusts us to keep up.
The digital effects hold up their end of the story, as well, dropping all these animated creatures convincingly into the live-action world around them. In fact, it might be some of the best blending of live action and digital critters I've seen.
Highmore must now be a leading expert at talking to the empty space where a digital character will be inserted. He and Mary-Louise Parker as the mom provide the human foundation that is the heart of the story, another element many of these films fumble. Their performances, along with Plowright's as the 86-year-old still pining for her lost daddy, keep "Spiderwick" from becoming just an animated action/monster movie. In the end, it's all about this broken family. (More below.)
The film's PG rating comes with several uses of God's name for swearing and lots of fantasy violence (including stabbings, explosions, and murderous mayhem).
Worldview
[WARNING: Small spoilers revealed to help break down the film's perspective.]
The fantasy elements of "Spiderwick" reflect the painful real-world issues the human characters are dealing with. Specifically, Jared and Great Aunt Lucinda have lost their dads. Arthur Spiderwick was literally carried away by his work when Lucinda was just six years old, not to be heard from again for 80 years. "I was so captivated by all the magical creatures I found that I lost sight of the one I already had," he eventually says of his daughter. How many dads disappear into careers, loving their work more than their kids?
Jared's explosive anger about his dad's absence shows up in otherwise friendly Timbletack, a creature who must be soothed out of an ugly and destructive state when he gets mad. Jared must face a previously hidden world of adulthood when his dad abandons him. To defeat the goblins of resentment and the ogre of hatred, he'll have to reconnect with the family he still has -- his brother and sister and mom -- and step up into manhood by protecting his family's heritage from the monsters.
Okay, that might be an oversimplified listing of the story's subtext. But it's the big idea, and it's a powerful one. Way too many kids spend at least some of their childhood in a home without a dad, and it's always devastating. God designed the family; He intended dads to provide a strong, supportive, loving, grace-filled, disciplining, and gentle foundation for sons and daughters. Research reveals that even a struggling dad who is there is better for kids in the long run than a dad who is just gone. All of us build our deepest ideas about who we are, who God is, and what it means to be a man from our dads.
The Bible gives clear instructions to fathers: Love your wives with the self-sacrificing love of Jesus; provide for your families; raise your kids to follow Jesus by example and instruction; and treat your kids in way that doesn't make them into angry people. Listen to Colossians 3:21: "Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged."
Jared can be seen as a discouraged kid, embittered by his dad's defection from the family. He makes choices to begin to work through that discouragement. In the real world, of course, it takes a lot longer than 90 minutes to come to grips with the destructive results of an absent dad. God's Word tells all of us to begin to think of God as our Father; fatherless kids have to embrace that big idea sooner and much more urgently. They also need help from strong and loving men in churches, schools, and extended family who can offer some of the support, teaching, and encouragement every dad should.
Why not pray for anyone you know living without a dad right now? Ask God to help them see Him as a Father who loves and takes care of them. If you're dad is gone for whatever reason, ask God to help you set your anger aside and find some good guys in your church or elsewhere to spend time with. Even when dads leave, God never abandons His children.
Questions:
• Fan of the books? How does the movie stack up?
• Do you believe in a real and invisible supernatural world of good and evil? How could the film's ogres and goblins be seen in light of the Bible's teaching about demons and their influence on us? Any ideas about how we can protect our homes and lives from their destruction?
• Any other kids fantasy books you'd like to see made into films?
• Aside from leaving, how can dads make their kids into angry people? How can kids with angry dads learn to not to be so angry?
* If you're a guy, what are you doing now to prepare to be a great and godly dad?