"Spiderwick Chronicles"

Saw "The Spiderwick Chronicles" this past weekend. Didn't much like it. It felt very by-the-numbers--ooh, look, a special world of enchantment, a kid that no one believes who holds the fate of the world in his hands. Yawn. I don't know if it was the severe compression a novel-to-movie has to go through, but the MacGuffin (the special book) wasn't convincing at all.

Even worse, the cast all seemed to be sleepwalking through this thing. Freddie Highmore was so preoccupied with making his dual roles seem different that he forgot to make either one believable. Mary-Louise Parker was just off-note the entire time. Even David Strathairn, who is usually great, seemed to be just mouthing his lines while counting his salary in his head.

My daughter, of course, loved it.