When the goblin attacks start, or the kids soar off on the back of a winged beast called the griffin, there are thrills to spare. (Spielberg's great editor, Michael Kahn, cut "Spiderwick.") With DiTerlizzi and Black acting as executive producers, the movie has a lush spectacle and high-speed action that suggest Steven Spielberg in his younger days. They told their story in spare little volumes, with spidery line drawings. The book on which the movie was based was written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. There's a good brownie in the house (Martin Short as the Dickensian little Thimbletack), a likable goblin outside (Seth Rogen as Hogsqueal) and a horde of bad, bad goblins, led by meanie Mulgarath (a nice hammy part for Nick Nolte), who try to filch the guide and use it to rule the world. They're invisible until you sight them with an Eye Stone, goblin spit or some other magical talisman. It's Jared who stumbles on the book that gets them all in trouble: Arthur Spiderwick's "Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You," a compendium of the haunts and habits of the fairies, goblins and other supernatural beings who live around the Spiderwick manse. Jared is angry about the breakup of his family, which he wrongly blames on his mother. They've come to live in the country, in the semi-Victorian spook mansion of a family home that once housed their great-great-uncle, brilliant but slightly dotty naturalist Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn) and his daughter Lucinda (Jordy Benattar). Rated PG.Īt the center of the story are the besieged Graces: resilient mom Helen (Mary-Louise Parker), dangerously disobedient Jared (Freddie Highmore), his more domesticated twin brother Simon (also Highmore) and their swashbuckling fencer sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger). Starring: Starring: Freddie Highmore, Mary Louise-Parker, Nick Nolte and Joan Plowright
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