I liked it. It has a very appealing esthetic. I really enjoy that type of dark, fantasy morbidity. (Similar to some of Tim Burton's best work.) Liam Aiken is a pretty good actor, and his character and his sister were very stylish all dressed in black.

I thought the story was amusing, too. Jim Carrey, who can sometimes be extremely annnoying, was OK. I also liked the music a lot.

Overall, I thought it was a decent and entertaining film. Much, much better than Tim Burton's mediocre Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I hated in spite of the two brilliant performances by Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore.

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I think the movie was supposed to have sort of a dour tome to a point.  I remember when it and the book series were being plugged, it seemed like we had a lot of advanced warning about it when they said things like "nothing goes right" and "there are hardly any good moments" in teasers.

Perhaps we have been nicely pampered by the magic of Harry Potter and Peter Pan over the years, but I really wasn't ready for this when I saw it on New Years' Eve 2004.  Carrey actually _was_ what I hated most about about the film, and Liam did have a few good monents - especially toward the end.  But throughout the whole movie, it just becomes all too obvious that they are straining to tell us that the kids _never have a prayer_ to escape.


MJ