Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, 2004)

When their parents die in an accident the three Baudelaire children (Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Kara and Shelby Hoffman) bounce from one caregiver to the next. While the adults around them believe they are just unlucky, the children are more suspicious that all of these deaths have something to do with Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), a conman who is obsessed with gaining control of their fortune.

This movie sounds like a good idea - a mordant series of books about unfortunate children brought to life  in the visual style of one of Hollywood’s most distinctive stylists, Tim Burton.

The key problem is that Burton is not present, and the filmmakers have sought to bottle lightning by replicating his signature style.

This movie is a pure exercise in aesthetic replication - it has a superficial understanding of how it’s influence looks and sounds, but has no function beyond mimicry.

The people who made this want to reach for the pitch-black humour of The Addams Family (with a good dollop of Burton-style pop gothic), but the movie never comes together.

The whole movie feels dead - the art direction and the visual style weirdly lack the sense of humour and energy that the movie requires.

The key thing with Tim Burton’s work is that he believes in it, and he has a feel for how to make it feel like a living, breathing world. His movies are funny but they’re funny in specific ways that feel rooted in the real world. There is a pathos to Burton’s characters that may be heightened, but it is believable. 

A sad postscript to the film is that it ends up replicating the look and feel of later Tim Burton, when he had taken on CGI and started remaking other works that vaguely fit his established persona.

Jim Carrey’s performance as Count Olaf sounds great in concept but it feels like an improv riff with no focus or punchlines. 

The child actors’ performances are pitched for dry wit, but there is no naturalism or feeling to their characterisations. They are pieces of the mode-en-scene, moving from plot point to plot point.

Ultimately, beyond the economic motive, I just do not know why this movie needs to exist. 

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