The Spiderwick Chronicles

These are big times for kid lit. As someone who grew up on BBC serializations of CS Lewis and co, it's mindboggling to see how much money is going into the Narnia, Potter, and Lord of the Rings movies, and the size of the audience there is for these extravaganzas.

More modest than The Golden Compass, and in some ways better for it, Mark Water's film doesn't seem to aspire to franchise status. It's a crisp little movie drawn from a series of short fantasy books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. If there's room for a sequel I don't know, but for a change this movie actually comes with an ending, not a teaser for further adventures.

The CS Lewis/Narnia influence is obvious. The Grace children - angry, troubled Jared; his sweeter twin brother Simon (both are played by Freddie Highmore); and their older sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) - move into a ramshackle country house with their newly divorced mom (Mary-Louise Parker). The estate once belonged to their great great uncle, Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn), a naturalist whose field research revealed some unexpected new species: fairies, goblins and the like.

Uncle Arthur has long since vanished - and his daughter Lucinda is now an old lady in the local asylum - but Jared's discovery of his loosely-bound notes reawakens the interest of the terrible ogre Mulgarath (Nick Nolte), who will stop at nothing to get his claws on them, if only he and his toadies can break the protective circle that surrounds the house.

Mulgarath isn't the only monster in this movie. Jared does a good impersonation of one in the early scenes, railing against his mom and taking a stick to the MPV. His home is broken and he's all cut up about it. When his sister wakes up to find her hair tied to the bedstead, everyone assume Jared is the culprit. In fact, it's Thimbletack, a "house brownie" whose job is to protect Spiderwick's book. A midget-sized hulk voiced by Martin Short, Thimbletack can work himself into a green fury unless you sweeten his disposition with generous helpings of honey.

Jared also gets some help from Hogsqueal, a bird-eating hobgoblin (voiced by Seth Rogen) who has sworn vengeance on Mulgarath, and who'll spit in your eye to expose the ogre's invisible minions.

Waters (Mean Girls) hasn't done an fx movie before - unless you count Freaky Friday - but he's kept a firm grip on the material, and gets impressive performances out of Bolger and Highmore (though it's questionable whether it was worth twinning him; Simon - "I don't do conflict" - is mostly on the sidelines). The storytelling is economical and brisk. In some ways Waters approaches it more as a pre-teen horror movie. The domestic squabbles within the ruptured family are realistic and raw, and the climax is like something out of a home invasion thriller (but with more goo).

That said, these intense sequences are offset by moments of whimsy and humor, by Caleb Deschanel's beautiful cinematography, James Horner's warm score, and the benign presence of old pros like David Strathairn and Joan Plowright. Incidentally, Strathairn's regular collaborator, indie filmmaker John Sayles is one of three credited screenwriters.

Although it is rated PG, parents of younger children should proceed with caution: this walk in the woods is no picnic. The Spiderwick Chronicles is animated by its anger issues; my nine year old lapped it up.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com