The Spiderwick Chronicles Held Over

After last weekend's power supply failure we were able to make arrangements to get a new power supply. It arrived mid-week and we were able to finish installing it tonight (Thursday). We successfully ran it for several hours, so this weekend we'll back on screen.

Since we haven't been able to show it yet, we will be holding over The Spiderwick Chronicles, with a new film next weekend.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a condensation of the award-winning series of books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi - The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgrath.

Helen Grace (played by Mary-Louise Parker) is in the middle of a divorce. She, with her twin sons Jared and Simon (played by Freddie Highmore), and her daughter Mallory (played by Sarah Bolger) move from New York to Spiderwick, the strange and spooky house in the country left to her by her aunt.

Jared isn't happy. He doesn't want to be there. He misses his dad. And when things go wrong, he's usually the one blamed.

One day he finds a dumbwaiter that takes him to his Grandfather's study, which has been left untouched since his Grandfather disappeared under mysterious circumstances years ago. In the study Jared finds a 'field guide' to an unseen world right next door to ours, and a 'Seeing Stone' that allows him to see the goblins, spirits, trolls, and other creatures out of fantasy that inhabit that world.

He also finds that things aren't all sweetness and light in the world of fantasy.

Fair warning - Even though this film is rated PG, and the books it is based on are aimed at children in grades 3 - 6, Roger Ebert thinks it should have been rated PG13. Young children will be frightened.