Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Blu-ray Movie Review

Life Is Grimm

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 8, 2014

According to Lemony Snicket's biography in the last book of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the fictional alter ego of author Daniel Handler "is still at large". The same could be said for director Brad Silberling's film adaptation of the first three books in the series, which was released in December 2004. While visually arresting and splendidly cast, the entire film plays like the setup to a franchise that, for a very long time, its producers hoped it would become. Alas, both Dreamworks and Paramount (which produced the film through its Nickelodeon subsidiary) underwent so many changes in the years following Lemony Snicket's release that the child actors grew up and the other key players moved on. By 2009, all talk of a second film had ceased. Further unfortunate events remain "at large".

Still, what exists is an impressive achievement, both in its creation of a contemporary fairy tale universe (always seen from a child's point of view) and in its darkly comic humor, which benefits not only from the star wattage of such notables as Jim Carrey, Billy Connolly and Meryl Streep, but also from precocious child stars Emily Browning and Liam Aiken, whose serious demeanor and intense focus on surviving the perils of the world keep the film grounded.

Lemony Snicket (Jude Law) narrates the film at his typewriter, styling himself as the official chronicler of the three Baudelaire children: Violet (Browning), Klaus (Aiken) and two-year-old Sunny (alternately played by twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman and, in some shots, a CG baby). With Lemony telling the story, the narrative is free to engage in numerous feints, false starts and misdirections, as the impulsive author allows his melancholy imagination to roam. Always, though, he is brought back to the unfortunate Baudelaires, who find themselves orphaned at a tender age, when a mysterious fire of unexplained origin levels the family mansion and kills both their parents.

Thus begins the Baudelaires' odyssey as they search for a new home, their transport always arranged by a kind but stiff and dim-witted banker named Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall), who is executor of their parents' estate. Their nearest relative is Count Olaf (Carrey), a failed actor with an extreme case of self-regard and a filthy, dilipidated home where the three children slave like three Cinderellas, cleaning and cooking for the Count and his "acting company", which is no more than a collection of talentless sycophants. (The group includes Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Adams, Craig Ferguson, Luis Guzmán and Jamie Harris, many of whom have hilarious scenes that had to be excised for pacing.) Secretly, the Count schemes to kill off the children and inherit the fortune left by their parents. He is a genuine ogre from a kid's nightmare, but Carrey manages to make him funny, in a horrifying way.

Purely by accident, Mr. Poe stumbles on just enough of the Count's machinations to conclude that he's an unfit guardian (though he dismisses the children's accusations that Olaf wants to murder them). This brings the Baudelaires to several alternate guardians. The first is Uncle Monty (Connolly), an eccentric herpatologist with a house full of snakes, lizards and frogs, including the misleadingly named "Extremely Deadly Viper". The second is Aunt Josephine (Streep), whose ramshackle house is perched precariously on a cliff above Lake Lachrymose and who suffers from a morbid fear of, well, everything. Each time, Count Olaf isn't far behind, donning various disguises that fool everyone except the children. Having discovered that he can't inherit their family fortune by killing them, he does the next best thing by eliminating the competition for guardianship.

Count Olaf's final ploy, at least in the film, is to arrange a trumped-up marriage with fourteen-year-old Violet by giving his neighbor, Justice Strauss (Catherine O'Hara), a part in a wedding play performed by his troupe on the pretext of making their performance "true to life". The play is attended by a constable (Cedric the Entertainer) who has demonstrated throughout the film that the police are useless and by the only critic who thinks Count Olaf can act (played, in an uncredited cameo, by Dustin Hoffman). The Count forces Violet to participate by holding infant Sunny as hostage, and the Baudelaire children face their most desperate hour.

Lemony Snicket received well-deserved Oscar nominations for art direction, costumes and makeup (winning in the last category), because Silberling and his team made the world of the Baudelaires seem so real that you feel you've been there. Much of that effect was created by constructing huge practical sets so that, wherever possible, the actors were standing in actual "locations" and reacting to objects rather than empty space. Industrial Light and Magic contributed its expertise for key elements that couldn't be built for real, including some of Uncle Monty's more fanciful "specimens" and the deadly Lachrymose Leaches that claimed the life of Aunt Josephine's beloved husband. But so much of Lemony Snicket's extraordinary world was photographed "in camera" that it has a tactile, lived-in quality usually missing from contemporary attempts at a fairytale. While it's unfortunate that Silberling did not get a chance to pursue the many leads and clues planted throughout the film for further development (notably the letters "V.F.D.", which are sprinkled everywhere and denote a secret society to which the Baudelaire parents belonged), there are still many pleasures to be found in what is here.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Director Silberling asked cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezski (Gravity) to shoot Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events because of Lubezski's work on Sleepy Hollow, which had the same spectral quality that Silberling wanted for the world that threatens the Baudelaire children. Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, from a Paramount transfer, captures Lubezski's delicate and ghostly lighting, which, as Silberling notes in his commentary, often emanates from no identifiable source. As the Baudelaire children move from one environment to another, the film's palette shifts dramatically, from the sickly and dim recesses of Count Olaf's home to the brightly lit and colorful interiors of Uncle Monty's, to the faded rooms of Aunt Josephine's, where everything looks fragile (and turns out to be). Blacks are solid, bright colors (when they occur) are properly saturated, and contrast levels are appropriate. Fine detail is well-rendered, which allows the viewer to appreciate the minutia of the production design, which is crammed with oddities and visual jokes.

Lemony Snicket was finished on a digital intermediate, from which the Blu-ray was presumably sourced. As those familiar with the DI process should understand, issues such as high frequency filtering and artificial sharpening are rendered moot with a DI, because, to the extent they are applied, such digital manipulation happens during the DI and becomes part of the finished film released for public consumption. The Blu-ray simply replicates the DI colorist's work as approved by the film's cinematographer and/or director. No doubt due to the large number of extras, Warner has placed the film on a BD-50, with an average bitrate of 24.96 Mbps, which is not overly generous but is certainly adequate to reproduce the film's active scenes and complicated imagery without compression issues.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The complexities of Lemony Snicket's 5.1 audio mix, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, are explored in several of the comprehensive extras, which address both the elaborate sound effects and the delicate orchestral score by Thomas Newman. The Blu-ray's soundtrack brings out all the subtle layerings in the mix, especially in distinctive environments like Uncle Monty's home, where the hissing and rattling of snakes are everywhere, and Aunt Josephine's creaking abode, which the film's sound designer aptly described as "a contractor's nightmare". The destructive impact of a hurricane registers with fierce intensity, and an attack by the Lachrymose Leaches is a shrieking nightmare on all sides. There's also a nasty close encounter with an oncoming train. All of these experiences register with solid impact, broad dynamic range and, where appropriate, deep bass extension. Somehow, the dialogue always manages to rise above it all, even with Jim Carrey's various thick accents.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Paramount released two DVD editions of Lemony Snicket in 2005. The first, in April, was a single disc with two commentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes and several featurettes on Carrey's development of Count Olaf and his alter egos. The second "Special Collector's Edition" arrived the following month and contained an additional disc with a feature-length documentary on the making of the film, as well as a short documentary on the sound design and other materials. I only have the single-disc edition, but as far as I can tell, all of the extras from the special edition have been ported over to Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray contains several "Easter Eggs". Rather than describe them, I have simply indicated the submenus where they can be found. There may be others I overlooked.

• Alarming Audio Commentaries


• With Director Brad Silberling: This is the more informative commentary of the two, as Silberling covers everything from creating a movie script out of incidents from several different novels, to casting, the film's visual style and the pressures of working on a tight deadline.


• With Director Brad Silberling and the Real Lemony Snicket: This commentary is its own separate entertainment, as author Daniel Handler pretends to be shocked— shocked!—that Hollywood would turn such a dismal tale into a movie, while Silberling falsely reassures him that they've changed his stories so that things work out much better than in the books, only to feign embarrassment when further tragedy strikes.



• Bad Beginnings (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced)


• Building a Bad Actor (12:47): How Carrey and Silberling worked together to develop the characters of Count Olaf and his various alternate incarnations.


• Making the Baudelaire Children Miserable (3:05): The casting process for the Baudelaire children.


• Interactive Olaf (9:20): "This supplement presents highlights from Jim Carrey's extensive makeup and wardrobe tests in a four-way split screen. . . . [S]witch the audio as you watch by navigating to the pane you'd like to hear and pressing ENTER."



• Orphaned Scenes (plus Easter Egg): Silberling discusses several of these in his commentary. A "play all" function is included.


• Dismal Deletions (480i; 1.85:1, enhanced; 14:47)
• Violet's Rock Retriever
• The Count Kills Shakespeare
• Alone in the World
• Casting the Marvelous Marriage (Extended)
• Extended Puttanesca
• Monty's Montage
• Sham Goes A-Courtin'
• Aunt Jo's Dilemma
• Life in the Theater
• The Marvelous Marriage
• Olaf's Escape


• Obnoxious Outtakes (480i; 1.85:1, enhanced; 14:48): Some of these are mistakes and some are improvs. A "play all" function is included.
• Working with Sunny
• Olaf's Workshop
• Odious Count Olaf
• Moments in the Marvelous Marriage
• The Critic & The Cop



• A Terrible Tragedy: Alarming Evidence from the Making of the Film (plus Easter Egg) (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:44:31): This feature-length documentary explores the creation of Lemony Snicket's world in detail, with focus on the specific areas listed in the individual chapter headings below.


• A Woeful World
• Costumes and Other Suspicious Disguises
• Violet's Functional Designs
• CAUTION! Incredibly Deadly Vipers
• The Sad Score



• Volume. Frequency. Decibels. (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced)


• The Unsound Sound Designer (30:04): This is a detailed and fascinating look at the craft of sound editing and mixing, as the film's sound recordists literally attack a house slated for demolition in an effort to capture authentic effects for Aunt Josephine's home. Sound designer Richard King describes how numerous other effects were created, as well as the challenges of fine-tuning the mix down to the day of release.


• You Probably Shouldn't Listen to These: Original effects recordings, separately and in combination.
• Tree, Meet House (0:24)
• The Terrible Train (0:41)



• Sinister Special Effects (plus Easter Egg) (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 41:58): A wide-ranging cast of visual effects experts, including Kevin Yagher, Jeff Olson and Stefan Fangmeier, discuss some of the film's most challenging (and, in some instances, least obvious) CG moments.


• An Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny
• An Even More Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny
• The Terrible Fire
• Trains, Leeches & Hurricanes



• Dire Warnings (plus Easter Egg) (480i; 1.85:1)
• Theatrical Trailer #1 (1:51)
• Theatrical Trailer #2 (2:12)

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lemony Snicket was a major holiday release in 2004, but Warner/Paramount is releasing it now, presumably as a Halloween-themed film. The latter is probably more appropriate. It's a dark tale about three children pursued through an unsympathetic world by a heartless monster. By sticking together, they manage to stay one step ahead, but the calls get closer every time, and the monster keeps coming back to attack again. This is not a tale that ends "happily ever after", but then again, the narrator warns of that right at the outset. The Blu-ray, however, requires no warning. It accurately reproduces the film and includes the impressive array of extras initially assembled for the "collector's edition" DVD. Highly recommended.