It stars Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Cedric the Entertainer, Luis Guzmán, Jennifer Coolidge, and Meryl Streep, and Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket.

In a clock tower, investigator Lemony Snicket begins writing a documentation of the whereabouts of the Baudelaire children: 14-year-old inventor Violet, her 12-year-old bibliophile brother Klaus, and their mordacious 2-year-old youngest sister Sunny.

The orphans attempt to warn Uncle Monty about Count Olaf's arrival, but he believes Stephano is after the Incredibly Deadly Viper, a giant misnomer python, in his laboratory that he discovered.

Uncle Monty is discovered dead shortly after, and his death is blamed on the viper, although the children are certain that Count Olaf murdered him.

Mr. Poe takes the children to their Aunt Josephine, a grammar-obsessed widow with panphobia, living on a house at the edge of a cliff.

Klaus's suspicions reveal that Olaf is planning to take advantage of the play to really marry Violet in an attempt to get the fortune, using legally recognized vows and a bona fide justice of the peace.

Olaf locks Sunny up in a birdcage, threatening to drop her to her death if Violet refuses to take part in the play.

Klaus escapes and finds a hidden tower in Olaf's house, where he discovers a large window with a set of lenses that, if positioned correctly, can focus the rays of the sun.

A lost letter from their parents finally arrives, and inside is a spyglass announcing their family's secret society before they became orphans.

She was sent Handler's original script when Barry Sonnenfeld was planning to direct, and screen tested for the part using an English accent.

[11] The director hired Handler to write the script[12] with the intention of making Lemony Snicket a musical,[7] and cast Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in September 2002.

[13] Paramount eventually settled the situation in January 2003 by enlisting help from DreamWorks Pictures to co-finance the film, but Sonnenfeld vacated the director's position.

He quickly read the first three novels and was excited that "Hollywood was taking a chance to put over $100 million to adapt these inventive children's books onto screen".

Silberling avoided using too many digital or chroma key effects because he wanted the younger actors to feel as if they were working in a realistic environment.

The water tank was instrumental in filming scenes set at Briny Beach, Lake Lachrymose, Damocles Dock and Curdled Cave.

[20] To contribute to the setting, Silberling hired Emmanuel Lubezki as the cinematographer because he was impressed with the trio's work on Sleepy Hollow.

[20] Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), supervised by Stefen Fangmeier,[23] created the film's 505 visual effects shots.

[24] The filmmakers used as few digital effects as possible,[23] though the train and smoke for the railroad crossing scene were created entirely by computer animation.

[20] Because working with infants was sometimes risky in producing a film, four scenes involving Sunny Baudelaire required CGI with motion capture technology.

[25] Among these are the shot of Sunny hanging on to a table by her teeth, catching a spindle with her mouth and the scene where she is entangled with the Incredibly Deadly Viper.

[26] In October 2002, Nickelodeon Movies hired Activision (which actually had a partnership with DreamWorks) to create the film's tie-in video game.

Given its December release, the film's marketing campaign was criticized as a deliberately anti-holiday comedy with taglines like "Taking the cheer out of Christmas" and "Mishaps.

[1] The film was released in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2004, on 4,400 screens at 3,620 theaters, earning $30.1 million in its opening weekend and finishing first at the box office.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Although it softens the nasty edges of its source material, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a gothic visual treat, and it features a hilariously manic turn from Jim Carrey as the evil Count Olaf.

[35] Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune praised Rick Heinrichs's production design and Carrey's balanced performance as a scene stealer, calling the film "exceptionally clever, hilariously gloomy and bitingly subversive.

"[37] Ty Burr, in The Boston Globe, observed, "Director Brad Silberling has essentially made a Tim Burton movie without the weird shafts of adolescent pain.

At the same time, Silberling's not a hack like Chris Columbus, and Snicket has more zip and inspired filmcraft than the first two Harry Potter films.

"[38] Internet reviewer James Berardinelli felt that "the film is first and foremost a fantasy, but there are dark currents running just beneath the surface.

"[40] Scott Foundas of Variety gave a negative review, criticizing the filmmakers for sacrificing the story line in favor of visual elements such as set design and cinematography.

[10] Carrey thought his character would be good as the basis for a film franchise since each installment would feature new disguises for Count Olaf allowing him to dive into a new role each time,[16] though he said he didn't "have a deal" for a sequel.