A scene from 'The Spiderwick Chronicles' (IMDB)

Director Mark Waters takes on the bestselling series by Tony DiTerlizzi and crafts a journeyman effort that meets all the basic requirements, but fails to generate much magic. Credit goes to Mary-Louise Parker and co-star Freddie Highmore for injecting some novelty into a familiar mix. Here, a young boy and his family move to a big new home where they discover the secrets of the fairy world -- and find themselves in a life or death battle for control of an alternate universe.
Starring Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Sarah Bolger and Andrew McCarthy.
Directed by Mark Waters.
Parental advisory: Violence, may frighten young children
Running time: 96 minutes
Rating: Three stars out of five
Successful kids books would seem to be the easiest tomes to translate to the big screen. After all, the stories are pretty straightforward. The characters generally reside in the good box or the bad, and the narrative usually relies on outward events in the physical world to illustrate transformation.
In other words, kids book dont demand a careful deconstruction of the text in order to capture the full meaning of the story. When someone dies in a kids book, theyre dead -- they arent exploring metaphysics from the other side, or challenging Cartesian philosophy through Expressionist means.
Things are clear and monodimensional, which means a lazy director can easily satisfy the minimal requirements of taking the story from start to finish without too much imagination.
The only problem is, a kids movie without a trap door into the unpredictable is usually pretty boring, and that can leave the lesser efforts straddling a rather uncomfortable fence, stuck between a desire for simple storytelling and a yearning for something larger and more mysterious than the world we recognize as our own.
It can be a frustrating place to be, and The Spiderwick Chronicles -- the latest bestselling kids series to hit the big screen -- offers a great example of a kids movie that has great potential, a good look and a stellar cast, but doesnt quite find the magical kid energy to exceed the sum of its parts.
Part of the initial problem was the sheer familiarity of those parts. When the movie opens, were thrust into the car alongside Jared, Simon (Freddie Highmore), Mallory (Sarah Bolger) and mom (Mary-Louise Parker) as they arrive at an abandoned old mansion that was bequeathed to them by a crazy old aunt (Joan Plowright).
Weve seen kids resist the big move. Weve also seen kids sulk over the separation of mom and dad. For that matter, weve also seen kids discover magical secrets in a great big old house, all of which makes the first act in Spiderwick feel like a comparison exercise of everything from Lemony Snicket to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
To director Mark Waters credit, we do move beyond deja-vu thanks to the inclusion of Freddie Highmore in a two-part role -- twins Jared and Simon -- as well as the casting of the perpetually surprising Mary-Louise Parker.
Parker has a talent for creating wrinkles in flat dialogue and making even stock Mom characters come to life with a sense of mischief, seductive mystery and a niggling sense of nuttiness, and thanks to her and Highmore, the movies somewhat laborious beginning starts to find a groove once we get a feel for the characters.
The story radiates outward from there as we watch the rebellious Jared stumble into the central secret of the new house: A very special field guide written by their ancestor, Mr. Spiderwick (David Strathairn), is hidden in a secret room.
Spiderwick unravelled the secret world of hobgoblins and sprites and created a document unlike any other known to humankind. The only problem is, the book reveals every creatures weakness, which means if the volume landed in the wrong hands, it could mean the end of all fairies.
Enter Mulgarath (Nick Nolte), the big bad ogre who has designs on the field guide so that he may destroy his rivals, and rule over all the fairies with a gnarled fist. The only people who can stop the slaughter are Simon, Jared, Mallory and a small legion of fairy land mercenaries who want to see Mulgarath pay for his evil deeds.
A creepy villain is essential, and Nolte doesnt disappoint.
In perhaps the best casting call since Affliction, Noltes ability to make even kindness feel creepy is exploited to the full as he tries to cajole Jared into surrendering the book. When the kid refuses, the slit-eyed monster emerges and Nolte -- though buried beneath prosthetics -- puts on a convincing freak show.
Though the rest of the script reads like a Roadrunner vs. Wile E. Coyote encounter, director Waters keeps the plot moving at a fast enough clip to ensure we dont get too fidgety. (Although many pint-sized critics did seem to drift during the promo screening). He also gives the actors enough room to find new dimensions to their characters.
The only real weakness is the digital rendering of the fairy world. Though it looks realistic in terms of lighting and textures, the graphics are not convincing for the duration. The bad guys look like the mucus mascot for an antihistamine commercial, and the digital tableaux where the live actors and the code strings meet fail to generate any tension.
The movie still works as a story and delivers pretty good entertainment value for kids, but those seeking the magic of a Wizard of Oz, or even the quirkiness of The Last Mimzy may find The Spiderwick Chronicles a tad underwhelming.