Lemony Snickets A Series Of Unfortunate Events is a surprisngly decent film. Surprising because after the disappointment that was Big Fish from Tim Burton, here we are again with another children’s film promising to deliver entertainment in the form of a fairly tale with subtle dark tones.

Starring Jim Carrey as a creepy and ecentric Count Olaf, he is given the right to look after the orphaned Bauldelaire children after their parents are mysteriously killed in a fire at their mansion. Olaf turns out to be a distant relative of the family and it soon becomes clear that he is not interested in the children themselves but their inhertiance. Unfortunately for Olaf, the inheritance will not come so easy, until the eldest child comes of age.

The children themselves are an interesting set of characters. Klaus (Liam Aiken)is a book worm, having read hundreds and hundreds of books on many topics. His gift is the ability to memorise every single thing he has read, providing him with an invaluable therotetical knowledge of the world and how things within it work.

Violet (Emily Browning) on the other hand is practically smart, as opposed to Klaus’s theory. An inventor at heart, everytime she does come up with an idea, or an invention she ties up her air as an indication that she’s about to come up with something. She is perhaps the most sensitive to her surroundings and leading the family forward in situations where trouble brews.

Finally there’s little Sunny (Kara Hoffman & Shleby Hoffman) who has a habit of eating things. Well, eating anything practically, be it a chair, a tin bucket – if it can be eaten she will eat it. It’s an interesting gift, though it’s practical uses are few, and she often does it for her own entertainment it seems.

The story turns from tragedy to dire tragedy as the children are enslaved in a Cindrella manner,; forced to clean and cook for Olaf and his cronies while he comes with a scheme to take the children’s fortune from there. All the while, the children try to make it clear to the few adults they do see who can help of Olaf’s sly plan. Adults, as is the case in real life, don’t listen to the children and so the children are put into dangerous situations once Olaf is given custody of them, of which they must escape.

Once doubt arises about Olaf’s ability to care for the children, they are moved on from relative to relative, all of which display some degree of eccentricity that equal’s Olaf’s own. These relatives mostly have the good intentions at hand for the children, though at times you do wonder if they were all from the same dim gene pool as they fail to recognise Olaf’s various disguises – whcih can be clearly seen.

It’s family entertainment, and it’s pretty good. My kid brother was laughing at Carrey’s antics, his typical Ace Ventura-esque facial gestures and mannerisms. At the same time he seemed to become absorbed into what is a subtly dark fairy tale akin to the Brothers Grimm. It’s rarther ironic Burton’s pathetic effort with Big Fish (a much more interesting story and entertaining read than Burton ends up achieving) was such a bore. Unfortunate Events manages to capture what you would expect from Burton himself: dark characters, melancholy atmosphere, creativity and imagination.

Visually it seems keen to emphasise, as narrated, that this film is not a happy fairy tale about happy elves running wild in the woodlands. Practically everyone seems to have dressed for a funeral before the funeral even began. The muted tones and the emphasis on black, be it vehicular or costume, is so promininet that when any element of bright colour is demonstrated the visual contrast is really quite strong and welcome.

The children perform their roles well, and Emily Browning as Violet I thought particularly shined – I expect we’ll be seeing more of her in the future. None of the children come across as bratty, able to manage their lines without coming across as forced and work well together to form the close-knit family.

Story-wise, it rarely touches corny, and even when it does, it seems to pull away from it pretty quickly. It runs at a reasonable pace, though it could be argued that for a children’s film there’s perhaps a little too much dialogue, which did seem to bore my kid brother at times – possibly because he couldn’t keep up with some of the complications that developed, particularly towards the end. Jude Law, as Lemony Snicket, delicately narrates the tale adding to the fairy tale feel of the film.

I haven’t read the books, so perhaps my opinion will be less critical, but I thought it was certainly a decent effort. It’s not a crash, bang wallop sort of children’s film and develops the story with a controlled pace. The adventure element has perhaps been overemphasised, and the result is something quite simplifed as adventures go, but it still manages to entertain for just over an hour and half.

This has neither the grandeur or other-worldly imagination of something The City of Lost Children, which still stands the test of time with todays modern movies, but Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is certainly passable as a film for children who like their tales to be a little darker than usual.

Verdict: Reasonably entertaining film for young children who like their stories a touch dark