There are two kinds of fantasy adventures—those that take place in another world (The Lord of the Rings, The Golden Compass), and those in which the fantasy world exists parallel to and often spills into our own (The Chronicles of Narnia, Pan’s Labyrinth). The Spiderwick Chronicles, which embeds spiritual truth in the guise of mythology, belongs in the latter category. Much more fantastical and far more handsome than the trailers reveal, The Spiderwick Chronicles is a thrilling adventure for children of all ages.
The Grace family could use a little grace of their own. Dad has run off with another woman and is seeking a divorce, something Mom Helen (Mary-Louise Parker) is trying to hide for as long as possible from her twin sons, Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore). While Simon is gentle and compassionate, Jared is short tempered and given to bouts of destructive anger. Unable to process his family’s disintegration, Jared is taking it out on those who love him the most.
Desperate for a new start on life, Helen moves the family from New York to the secluded Spiderwick Estate in rural Vermont, once owned by her great, great uncle Arthur Spiderwick. Peculiar things begin to occur the moment the Graces step into the spooky Victorian mansion—they’re bedeviled by strange disappearances, bumps in the night and mischievous attacks on Mallory Grace (Sarah Bolger). And all accusatory fingers are pointed in Jared’s direction.
Out to prove his innocence, Jared stumbles upon a secret room that contains “Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You,” a book with a dire warning: to read it is to invite certain death. Like Jumanji, it is not a question of if, but when Jared will crack Pandora’s box. Partly out of rebelliousness and partly out of a reasonable incredulity, Jared delves into the book. Inside, written in Arthur Spiderwick’s own hand, is a primer to a magical universe that exists, invisible, all around us. While his uncle speaks of befriending many of the otherworldly creatures there, he also warns that a malevolent, shape-shifting ogre known as Mulgarath seeks the knowledge to be found within the book’s pages and plans on using it to enslave both the magical and the human realm.
Soon the Grace children’s eyes are opened to the fantastic truths within the book and the enchanted creatures that inhabit the Spiderwick Estate alongside them. It isn’t long before Mulgarath and his goblin army turn all their dark energies to wresting the book from the house and destroying all inside its walls.
It should come as no surprise that Spiderwick is being executive produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, the husband and wife team responsible for most of Steven Spielberg’s most enduring films. No surprise, because Spiderwick, directed by Mark Waters, is rife with Spielbergian touchstones—a dysfunctional family, an absent father, a supernatural world stocked with fantastical creatures seeping into our own, childlike wonderment, and an imminent confrontation that can be won only by the innocent might of a child.
Spiderwick is a narrative compression of the beloved, best-selling series of books by author Holly Black and illustrator Tony Diterlizzi. It is made in the best tradition of superb children’s fantasy, evoking “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Peter Pan,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and, most recently, the Harry Potter books. While Spiderwick lacks Pan’s Labyrinth‘s exquisite elegance and sinister poetry, the comparisons are inevitable and well deserved.
Spiderwick is something of a gamble. Trying to catch lighting in bottle rarely works, but that is exactly what Paramount Studios is trying to do in capitalizing on the magic (and profitability) of such fantasy juggernauts as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Harry Potter franchise. Just last Christmas, New Line’s similar attempt failed when its sprawling and expensive children’s fantasy epic, The Golden Compass, opened to a disappointing box office and even more dismal reviews. Luckily, The Spiderwick Chronicles is superior in nearly every way.
Excised of the religious and political baggage that coursed like subterranean tributaries through Compass, Spiderwick’s story is far more basic and trouble-free—the invisible, enchanted world, like the human world, contains both beauty and ugliness, both good and evil. And like our world, evil will stop at nothing to achieve dominion. If the natural world does not rise up, evil will envelop not only the supernatural world, but the natural world as well. Sound familiar?
It would be easy to read spiritual analogies into Spiderwick, and they are there, intentionally or not. The supernatural world, which overlaps our own, is as real as the natural world. And in this world is a force for wickedness that prowls around, “seeking whom it may devour.”
“For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world,” wrote Paul in Ephesians, spelling out the plot of Spiderwick in surprising detail, “against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.” Despite the consternation and disbelief of many in Spiderwick and in real life, just because we can’t see a thing, does not mean that it does not exist.
Consistently thinking he knows best—despite the urgent pleas and warnings of others—Jared is cinematic proof that you can’t make a film about the dangers of reckless disobedience without first showing that disobedience in action. Jared is a difficult protagonist to appreciate at first. Hotheaded and defiant, his frequent outbursts and bouts of destructive anger make him more anti-hero than hero. We understand and empathize with the root causes of his antagonism, even as we disapprove of how he expresses them. But Spiderwick isn’t interested in leaving Jared unchanged. By film’s end, Jared is an altered young man. He has witnessed first hand that there are consequences to his actions and that those consequences not only harm him but frequently those he loves most.
The film also reveals that ignorance and obstinacy are not found only in the young. Arthur Spiderwick, we discover, once had a chance to destroy his creation, thus denying Mulgarath the power he sought. But Spiderwick was prideful and unwilling to part with his work. The result was the imperiling of an entire world and the loss of his daughter. Arthur Spiderwick is what Jared could have become had he not ultimately decided to throw his tenacity and drive behind protecting others rather than himself.
Director Waters (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday) impressively balances both the reality and the fantasy elements in Spiderwick, creating a world suffused with daunting adventure, considerable humor and touching humanity. Highmore, still as winsome as when audiences first fell in love with him in Finding Neverland, continues to impress as he ages. Here, he pulls double duty as twins and, along with his across-the-pond co-star, Bolger, nails a flawless American accent. The lively CGI sprites, hobgoblins, trolls and slobbering ogres mesh seamlessly with the film’s naturalistic, painterly cinematography. James Horner turns in the sort of pitch perfect, if self-plagiarized fantasy score, for which he is famous.
The Spiderwick Chronicles is an enjoyable adventure fantasy that is sure to cast a spell over its audiences. But just as importantly, it weaves a story that resonates with spiritual truth.
>Talk About It
Discussion starters- Jared begins the film as a violent, angry boy. What happens to change his nature?
- When he lets his anger get the best of him, Thimbletack literally turns into a monster. What spiritual similarities can we glean from this simple metaphor?
- Do you see any parallels between the invisible, but no less real, enchanted world of Spiderwick and that of our own? How does Ephesians 6:10-12 apply?
- What does the film teach us about family unity, togetherness and overcoming adversity through teamwork?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerThe Spiderwick Chronicles is rated PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements. The film isn’t for everyone. While it will appeal to children old enough to separate fantasy from the reality, it also has scary enough monsters and intense enough moments that parents should be wary of bringing their younger kids. There is one instance of very mild profanity and one other, more serious utterance that gets cut off mid-word.
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