Release Date:  February 14, 2008
Rating:  PG (for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements)
Genre:  Fantasy/Drama/Adaptation
Run Time:  92 minutes
Director:  Mark Waters
Actors:  Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Sarah Bolger, Joan Plowright, David Straithairn, Seth Rogen, Andrew McCarthy, and Martin Short.

The next time you run across a sealed leather book in the secret laboratory of your new creepy mansion—especially a book with a note of dire warning attached—please, for the love of all that’s good and decent, don’t open it!  If you do, you might unleash the fury of both fairies and goblins, and you might even end up time-travelling and changing the course of history for many. (Didn’t we learn not to do that in Back to the Future?) 

In The Spiderwick Chronicles, adapted from the book series of the same name, unfortunately Jared (Freddie Highmore) disregards such warnings and tampers with unseen dimensions, quickly finding himself in a dark adventure that will stretch him as never before.

It’s already a volatile phase of life for Jared, as his father (Andrew McCarthy) has left, and his mother (Mary-Louise Parker), brother Simon (also Freddie Highmore), sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) and he have just moved from New York City to an ominous mansion that once belonged to an insane aunt (Joan Plowright). And it’s not just your average, ominous mansion.  This one, as Jared discovers, was home to a brilliant scientist, Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn), who eighty years earlier discovered how to see into the world of fairies and goblins.  His revered laboratory book contains the secrets that many in this creature world would prefer stay hidden.  And if some of the secrets are made public, a terrible ogre (Nick Nolte) could destroy the fairies and take over the world.  You’ve gotta hate when that happens.

After Jared finds the lab book, all havoc breaks loose in the human and spirit realms.  Jared must rally not only his internal strength, but also the support of his quarrelsome siblings in order to win over creatures with ill motives and keep evil at bay.

With a Harry Potter feel at times, The Spiderwick Chronicles is a dark fantasy and focuses on magic, spells, and creatures. The special effects are brilliant, and the gnomes, fairies, trolls, snakes, and friendly mouse-type house brownie, Thimbletack (Martin Short), are realistic and often plenty scary. 

Throughout Spiderwick, the ogre continues to look like Nick Nolte, who is seen in both human and supernatural form. Meanwhile, the mother (Parker) and her sons (Highmore) look astonishingly alike, though the American and Brit actors are obviously of no relation.  That’s some good casting!