Help in the Entertainment Era: The SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

"What happens when Mulgarath gets the book?"

"I die. You die. We all die. Bye-bye."

~ Mallory Grace and Thimbletack

When the Grace family, Mallory, Simon, Jared, and their mom move into the old Spiderwick estate after their parents divorce, Jared is less than thrilled about things. But soon he finds a secret room and a strange book with a note on it that reads:

"Do not dare to read this book

for if you take one fateful look

you barter at your life's expense

and face a deadly consequence"

When he opens it, Jared's life could change forever - or just not exist anymore. The book contains secrets about the fantastical creatures that live in our world. But the evil ogre Mulgarath would do anything to learn the secrets in the book, so he sends his goblins to find it. The Grace family has to defend their home - or else.

I had seen the preview a few times, and it looked pretty cool. We rented it last night and watched it, hoping for a NARNIA-type adventure. We didn't get that.

Let's start with the bad stuff. The story of the mom and dad's divorce creeps around the whole time, and it turns out that their dad is "with someone else". Jared is devastated. The kids fight and blame each other for everything. That lasts until they are all convinced of the goblins that are putting the house under siege. Jared has temper problems during the beginning and yells, "I hate you!" to his mom, but is later sorry and apologizes. The Lord's name is used in vain several times, along with one other case of slightly foul language. There is very little blood, but several birds are swallowed whole, and there is a great battle in which many goblins lose heads or disintegrate. The goblins look more like giant toads and the ogre can be pretty scary. But our little boys ages 7, 5, and 4 watched it with us and haven't mentioned it again or lost any sleep. But I think our boys are grittier than the norm, and if your child gets scared watching NARNIA or walking through a shark tunnel, this is definitely a stretch.

On the good side, I haven't read the books, but from a writer's standpoint, I would've loved to be the one who thought up that plotline. Except for the divorce and the squabbling, it's a great story! The acting was good, and there were some funny lines. The special affects were more than acceptable. The movie was, for the most part, enjoyable and you're not suffering and rolling your eyes through the whole thing, like the BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA. But you may notice that this "good stuff" paragraph is shorter than the "bad stuff" paragraph. This is not a movie you need to rent, and you definitely don't want to see it more than once. This movie makes you shrug your shoulders at the end and say, "well, that's Hollywood. Barley enjoyable junk."