The Spiderwick Chronicles

Based on a well-known series of books, the movie involves a soon-to-be divorced mom and her three children who come to live in a creepy old mansion. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory child star Freddie Highmore plays cerebral young animal lover Simon Grace and also as his twin brother, Jared, a sullen kid prone to physical violence after the divorce of his parents. Unable to afford New York life on her own, his mother takes the boys and their teenage sister to live in a rundown country mansion owned by a distant relative tucked away in an asylum. Inevitably, weird things start happening, and Jared uncovers a book that serves as the key to all the strangeness — a guide book to the faerie world, scrupulously researched and handwritten by his great-great-uncle Arthur Spiderwick - who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The book has been hidden for 80 years, but almost the second Jared unearths it, creepy creatures start coming after the book, spurred on by an ogre called Mulgarath, who wants to use its secrets to destroy all the other faeries. Before long, Jared and his siblings — plus an alternately helpful house spirit enthusiastically voiced by Martin Short — are fighting more to save their own lives than to protect the book.

In the end, good always triumph over evil. The Spiderwick Chronicles is a fast-moving adventure with more than dynamic glitz to recommend it. It shows us a magical world where humans, goblins, spirits, hobgoblins, ogres, trolls and griffins all live together. It is a small world, but if each respects the other's boundaries, everyone has their own place in this world to call their own.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is an enjoyable adventure fantasy that pushes all the requisite buttons while still managing to throw in a pleasant surprise or two. It is a work of both modest enchantment and enchanting modesty, grounded in a classically Spielbergian realm where childlike wonderment crosses paths with the tough realities of young adulthood.