'Unfortunate' events are a joy to watch

Visual style and uncommon wit bring stories to life.
By CHRIS HEWITT
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Like chocolate-covered bugs, complex carbohydrates and the union of Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear, "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" marries the vile with the sweet.
"A Series of Unfortunate Events" is based on a series of 11 books written by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket and, for once, the moviemakers capture the appeal of the material they're adapting. The Snicket books are sly, punny adventures in which the resourceful Baudelaire orphans -- Violet, Klaus and baby sister Sunny -- repeatedly elude evil Count Olaf, who's always grabbing at their fortune. The movie is not as threatening as the books, and it beefs up the role of the count (Jim Carrey) at the expense of the orphans, but Snicketheads won't have many other quibbles with this elegantly designed, sinister comedy.
Sly tone
Although the sensibility is as ironic and modern as the current issue of The Onion, Snicket is vague about when the unfortunate events occur. Violet wears a dress that both Queen Victoria and that chick from Evanescence would love. The cars are from the '40s, but they have phones in them. No one has a cell phone, but faxes are exchanged. And reality TV -- in fact, just plain TV -- is nonexistent.
Freed from the modern world, "Unfortunate" exists in an imaginative universe that combines the elegance of woodcut illustrations with the kapow of today's gee-whizziest special effects, and the story walks a similar tightrope. The "Unfortunate" series shares its tone with Roald Dahl books such as "James and the Giant Peach," where you sense that the next thing that happens could be awful or wonderful but that you'll be delighted in either case.
Clever casting
Speaking of "clever," it's always clear that the Baudelaires are smart enough to defeat the vain Olaf. Carrey, whose crass performance was such a bummer in "The Grinch," ties his vast comic gifts to an actual character here. There's plenty of hammy acting, but the hamminess works because Olaf is a frustrated actor who wants to use the Baudelaires' dough to build a theater.
"Unfortunate" gives pros such as Meryl Streep, Jude Law and Timothy Spall great comic bits, but the perfectly cast children (Emily Browning, Liam Aiken and twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman) remain the focus of the movie.