E-Mail This Article to a Friend LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS

Brought to you by Brad Silberling, the director who mashed Wim Wenders’s Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire into Nicolas Cage/Meg Ryan pap (City of Angels), this overwrought dud shouldn’t have left DreamWorks’ CGI studio. Based on a fusion of tales by Daniel Handler (a/k/a Lemony Snicket), the film takes place in a superhistorical Boston that only a hermit from Orange County could imagine: think Bedknobs and Broomsticks London meets Blade Runner’s LA. Silberling spares no expense in cloning a Tim Burton mise en scène, but his slipshod editing undermines the visual mood he’s affecting. Story and acting suffer the same treatment. Jim Carrey’s performance as shape-shifting villain Count Olaf is his most forced since the second installment of Ace Ventura, and Meryl Streep, Cedric the Entertainer, and Dustin Hoffman embarrass themselves in supporting roles. Jude Law, competing with his Alfie self for most obnoxious overdub narrator of the year, repeatedly reminds the audience that "this isn’t a typical children’s story." Unfortunately, it’s as insipid as the rest. (107 minutes)