Lemony Snicket

Today I saw A Series of Unfortunate Events, the film adaptation of the first three novellas authored by a certain Lemony Snicket. The translation from book to film is not always an easy one. Many times the author has greater play with the audience than the director. For example, a line such as, "...and the Baudelaire children spent the evening wishing their parents were still alive..." can be more consicely conveyed in the written word as opposed to the image. Whereas words alone are digested efficiently, the image--or an entire scene--can require more thought and time. Indeed, the mood of the Lemony Snicket series is un-interrupted by such a turn of phrase. Unfortuantely the same cannot be said of the film. Alas, thoughts are shaped by words and words shaped by thoughts however. Therefore being creatures molded with language, the image alone is a greater abstraction and therefore harder to interpret correctly--or more open to interpretation if you will.

Before I continue I want to explain to those who are not Lemony Snicket readers just how tough it would be for any director to turn these books into cinematic works. They are ambiguous to an extreme. Although marvellously macabre and brilliantly understaded, the books do little to "set the scene" as it were. The reader can never be certain what time period the events are taking place in, and likewise with geographical concerns. The tone of the book is definitely English, perhaps early twentieth century post-industrialist. But certain quirks emerge that push the reader forward several decades (such as the employ of "walkie-talkies," the author's term). However the predominate themes in the Lemony Snicket collection are gloom, dry wit, and foreboding in the midst of happiness. In other words it is as if every silver lining has a dark cloud.

Being the sort of person that expects directors to take certain creative liberties whenever they attempt to capture books in celluloid, I began my viewing with high hopes and anticipation. Many of the same film crew that worked with Tim Burton during the making of Sleepy Hollow contributed to Series. I thirsted for a flick that was full of mist, implied horror, subtle humor, and lots of monochromatic tones ranging from the very black to the very white.

Instead I was given the visual equivalent of the "impulse buy" section that always borders your right when standing in line at the supermarket check-out: Lots of sweetness, lots of color, and lots that looks all right on the surface but when you really start to peel it back and compare it to something that is worth a damn, is ultimately worthy of little. So much is to be expected I suppose from American "Christmas time" cinema, where revenues trump relevance, and Box Office is the wintertime Christ child.

The greatest error made in the film, however, was one of race. More accurately, casting. The children performed well enough. The infant was especially endearing. However, in the portion of the film devoted to The Reptile Room: Book the Second, the investigating officer is black. More than that, he is black and acting "street."

When I see a film, I want to be wholly engrossed and encounter nothing that removes me from the escape that the film can create for me. I want to be engaged in imaginary worlds. I want to care about the welfare of the characters. I want to see a movie that justifies the existence of pop. Anything that removes me from these circumstances is bad. Poor CGI is bad. Poor acting is worse. Race diversification for the sake of itself when it means sacrificing the tone of the overall picture is unforgivable. Had the black character simply been a black man, speaking in the same syntax as all other actors (I suppose in a "white" way?), had he not been a Bernie Mack look-alike which implied someone of color thrown in for comedic (or more accurately, "tension") relief, had he had any basis in the book at ALL to be the sort of person of the actor's description I wouldn't have noticed his presence. And THAT, by the way, is how film is SUPPOSED to be. You shouldnt be able to point out actors. Instead you should remember only characters whilst the film is playing.

I suppose if the same movie was made by an English director, in a location where so many sets were not required, then the result would have been altogether different. Certainly some differences would be apparent simply because English culture, and therefore English film, is distinct from that in America. Yet the English care little about race. Im lead to belive then that an English director would not cast a black man for no other reason than casting a black man. Furthermore I think that if a black man were to appear in a movie of this sort he would blend in quite naturally, in part because the British dont have our American hang-ups and in part because his speech would most likely blend seamlessly with that of his white counterparts.

"They ruined it, even the villian looked pink and cheerful," said Frank Capra when he was asked his opinion of the colorization of Its a Wonderful Life. Capra mirrors my sentiment as regards Series. On many levels Brad Silberling's interpretation of the first three Snicket novels throws color where black and white were the intention; if not black and white, then at least 120 minutes of grey.