It's not like Hollywood has never done adaptations of novels before...but with the astounding success of the billion dollar franchise of Harry Potter movies based on her books, movie studios have developed a shark-like feeding frenzy to find and develop books--especially children's books--into movies which they hope will become the boy wizard's succes-sor, and usher in a new golden age of profit. Many of these, such as The Seeker: The Dark is Rising and The Golden Compass, were unimaginative and quickly forgotten failures, both critically and commercially. They missed the mark when it came to faithfully recreating the worlds of prose from which they sprang, and had not the faintest inkling of how to enchant their intended audiences.

     Then, there is The Spiderwick Chronicles, which will restore the faith of many who believed that good, enjoyable and fun adaptations of their favorite novels were no longer possible.

     Like most recent book-to-film adaptations, Spiderwick is based upon a series of books(by authors Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi), and throws together several plot elements from the various books within said series to form a thru-line for the movie. However, unlike the two horrific film examples listed above, Spiderwick works on nearly all levels, weaving its tapestry tightly together to great effect.

     The story opens with Arthur Spiderwick(David Strathairn) writing in a frenzied manner in his self-titled compendium "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You". Something goes awry however, and with a visible shock to some invisible barrier around Arthur's house, the story shifts to eighty years later. At this time, Helen Grace (Mary-Louise Parker) and her children are arriving at the Spiderwick Estate, which they have inherited from their aunt Lucinda, who unbenownst to them is Spiderwick's daughter. The siblings are eldest child Mallory(Sarah Bolger) and twins Jared and Simon(both played by Freddie Highmore). Of the family entire, only Jared doesn't want to be there; his parents have split up, and he is convinced that his dad Richard(a surprising cameo by '80's brat-packer Andrew McCarthy) will eventually come to pick him up so that Simon can live with him.

     This is the only true flaw in Spiderwick Chronicles, and one which I wish had been excised by either the writers(Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum and John Sayles) or director Mark Waters(Mean Girls, Freaky Friday): the fractured family dynamic, while part of the books, is something we've seen in literally dozens of movies within the past decade alone. It's tiresome, repetitious and adds very little to the plot(except toward the ending, which of course I will not reveal). The arguments between mom Helen and the moody Jared are tedious to sit through, and while the film does move at a good clip, shortening these scenes would have been a vast im-provement. On the plus side though, all the performances are solid(with the possible exception of Parker, who seems less readily able to submit to the fantasy aspects of the film than her young co-stars), and the job of playing twins by Highmore is absolutely a wonder to behold.

     Freddie Highmore(The Golden Compass, Finding Never-land) has always been a very capable actor. But until viewing his amazing turn as twins in this movie, I had no idea how absolutely brilliant he is as a thespian. Yes, some credit must go to director Waters, but Highmore imbues both Jared and Simon with their own individual body movements, quirks, speech patterns and other behaviors that separates the two characters and identifies them as individual entities so com-pletely, that a couple of times I actually had my doubts that it was the same actor, and wondered if it were possible High-more had a twin brother, heretofore unseen, that was per-haps making his acting debut. Credit of course must also go to the effects teams at ILM and Tippet Studio, who blended the "two" characters so seamlessly with one another, and with the mystical creatures around them.

     As for those creatures: it quickly becomes known to Jared
--through the aid of a "house brownie" named Thimbletack (voice of Martin Short)--that the surrounding woods around the house are populated by all sorts of creatures, including evil goblins and their leader Mulgarath(voiced by Nick Nolte, who also puts in an appearance as Mulgarath's human form). Mulgarath is a shape-shifting ogre, who will stop at nothing to retrieve the Field Guide, which Jared found by accident and made the mistake of opening, thereby making Mulgarath aware that the book still existed. Mulgarath wants the book because within its pages are the secrets to either controlling or destroying all the other mystical creatures, such as the family of hobgoblin Hogsqueal(voice of Seth Rogan), who were all killed when only a page or two of the book were once in the ogre's possession.

     The family--especially siblings Simon and Mallory--are of course skeptical of Jared's claims at first. But one day while Helen is at work, the children quickly become believers once Simon is kidnapped by goblins which are invisible to the naked eye, unless one looks through a "seeing stone"...or unless Hogsqueal "blesses" you with the gift of vision by spitting in your eyes.

     Unlike the Compass or Seeker flops, one actually gets the sense of impending danger in Spiderwick. The film is sub-limely and ably directed by Mark Waters, and so we get the necessary and definite impression that if these kids fail to stop Mulgarath from getting his hands on the Field Guide, that not only the mystical world, but our own as well, will fall into eternal darkness. The movie is rated PG-13, but is not for the more squeamish children one might take to such a film: there are a couple of quick eye gougings of mystical creatures, the children receive very real-looking and bleeding war wounds, and Mulgarath might come off as a very fright-ening entity to younger children(see photo, right).

     However, these risks are well worth it: even though the ending has more sap running through it than an elm tree, The Spiderwick Chronicles is superior entertainment on every level. The story is airtight, the acting is solid on every quarter, and the creature effects are the best I've seen since the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If indeed this film takes its rightful place at the top of the box office this weekend and Paramount decides to commit the other books to film...I will be more than willing to take another trip to the Spiderwick Estate and exhale cautiously as I take another peek through the seeing stone.