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Contains scary moments and moderate fantasy violence Young Jared Grace and his twin brother Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore) are non-too pleased when their newly single mom relocates the family to a creepy homestead in the middle of nowhere. Luckily for them, the house and its surrounds are infested with fairies, goblins and a great big ogre, all of them invisible until a goblin spits in your eye. Though it's pitched at the child鈥揻riendly end of the fantasy spectrum, The Spiderwick Chronicles is unexpectedly gripping.
Jared and Simon find themselves in a war for possession of a mysterious book written by their great-great uncle. Essentially a textbook of magical biology, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide To The Fantastical World Around You holds the secrets of every supernatural race. If he gets his hand on it the ogre Mulgarath (played, rather charmingly, by Nick Nolte) could take over the world and do all sorts of vaguely evil stuff.
"TWEE FAIRIES AND SCARY MONSTERS"
Elegantly condensed from a series of books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, The Spiderwick Chronicles is an intimate fantasy flick: it never aims for the broad-canvas thrills of the Potter or Rings movies, concentrating instead on a small group of characters and a self-contained world. Director Mark Waters has struck an expert balance between twee fairies and scary monsters, cutesy rhyming couplets and desperate battles, child-friendly anarchy (apparently, you can kill a goblin by pelting it with tomato ketchup) and mum-friendly sentiment. Highmore is as natural as ever, and there's good support from Martin Short and Seth Rogen as a pair of grumpy CGI critters. Probably a bit too spooky for under-eights, but the rest of the family should have a blast.
The Spiderwick Chronicles is out in the UK on 21st March 2008.
This film was truly thrilling and the jokes kept on coming.
