Film Review: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Part 3

This is the final instalment of a three-part series of reviews of the film of A Series of Unfortunate Events. If you’ve missed the first two parts you can see them here; Part 1 & Part 2.

These first two parts have seen the Baudelaires become orphans 2.5 times (the last half being because although Josephine appears to be dead, but there’s no body and the children suspect that her suicide note is directing them to her current location), they’ve also done battle with Olaf twice and are about to face him for a third time.

Let’s see how that goes for them.

84. Somehow Captain Sham knows what Josephine has written in her suicide note/will. So it’s time to head off across Lachrymose Lake.

85. Why is Sunny the only one wearing a lifejacket?

86. It’s a bit like the cave in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I keep expecting them to have to make a blood sacrifice or Inferi to start popping up!

87. And the plan is now to live in the cave. Good plan, Jo!

88. I love how Klaus plays on Josephine’s fears to get her out of the cave. You have to leave or the realtors will get you!

89. How awesome is the sky in this scene? It’s very stormy looking.

90. We get to learn a little bit more about the fires and the Baudelaire parents and the weird eye window drawing. Except Josephine cocks things up again by eating a banana, causing the small boat to be attached by the psycho leeches.

91. At least there’s a boat coming to save them. Oh, it’s Olaf. That’s not going to work out so well for them, is it?

92. I’m fairly certain that the baby Josephine was waving around was an animatronic-child.

93. Josephine you were so close to surviving. You have to pick the time and place to correct a person’s grammar.

94. And that makes the fourth death in this film.

95. Here comes Mr Poe, just in time to screw things up for the children again. Why not just hand the kids back to him, considering he clearly only wants them for their fortune? He’s such a caring guardian.

96. I forgot Dustin Hoffman was in this film.

97. There’s the Inheritance Law and You book again. And Justice Strauss is going to play the Justice of the Peace. Olaf’s really thought this out, hasn’t he?

98. Eww! Thick yellow toenails. Yuk!

99. How would Olaf explain the death of one of his wards? Then again, how will he explain his sudden marriage to his fourteen-year-old charge?

100. Klaus’s turn to try and save the day. He’s quite good at inventing stuff as well. And he doesn’t even need a hair ribbon!

101. Ooh look, the tree painting on the backdrop has a whole bunch of eyes in its branches. I never noticed that before.

102. Yay! Klaus has saved Sunny. But Sunny’s spotted the eye from the drawing at Josephine’s. So with Violet’s freedom at stake, he goes off for a look-see.

103. I like the little nod to the book as Violet tries to sign with her left hand. Nice try, Vi.

104. Oh look, the eye is pointing at the Baudelaire ruins. Perhaps this is how the fire started?

105. I’m not sure that Olaf’s decision to confess to his crime of marrying Violet for her fortune in front of a whole audience of people is really wise.

106. Then again, he’s not wrong when he tells Mr Poe that he’s the monster. Mr Poe should really have made more of an effort.

107. Nothing anyone can do about the marriage certificate. Except Klaus, of course, who’s just set fire to it.

108. And now the audience is looking more like a lynch mob!

109. I do like that we get a little montage of Olaf suffering his punishments. Even if that didn’t actually happen.

110. So we watch the Baudelaires heading off in Mr Poe’s car. Off to learn who their next, hopeless, guardian will be.

111. Actually, Mr Poe has improved slightly. He offers to take them by the old house once again. Just to well and truly cement the destruction in their minds, oh, and to pick up the mail. It’s quite nice how we get a little glimpse of how the house once looked.

112. Doesn’t the artwork on the walls look rather Helquistish?

113. Post’s here! Why would the postman deliver a letter to a burnt out shell of a house? Bet that’s Lemony Snicket disguised as a postman.

114. It’s the missing letter from when the Baudelaire parents went to Europe, like a letter from beyond the grave. I suppose they can just kind of pretend that their parents will be back from Europe in the future.

115. And there’s something else in there as well. It’s a spyglass all of their very own.

116. I like that we get to see Snicket hiding the book manuscript, like we know he does from the letters at the end of each book.

So it’s not a happy ending, but at least the children are together. So they have their family. And they have their home.

And now let’s just marvel at how cool the end credits of this film are. They’re like a whole extra film all of their own!

Check back next week for another film review post. :-)