marriage

• Bad Beginning, The by Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler (1999)

  [6/10]

  "The Baudelaire children -- Violet, Klaus, and Sunny -- certainly do get off to a bad beginning. Their home burns down, killing their parents. Fortunately, the children's parents left them an enormous fortune. Unfortunately, their next of kin, Count Olaf, wants to do away with the children to get the money for himself."

• Joy Luck Club, The directed by Wayne Wang (1993)

  [8/10]

  "The Joy Luck Club examines the lives of eight women: four mothers and their daughters. Each mother went through harrowing experiences to come to the United States from pre-Communist China. And even though the daughters only know fragments of their mothers' stories, these events define major aspects of their personalities and their relationships with their mothers and others."

• Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events directed by Brad Silberling (2004)

  [7/10]

  "In most cases where I have both read the book and seen the movie adaptation, I recommend the book as the better experience. In the case of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I have to recommend the movie over the books."

• Pursuit of Happyness, The directed by Gabriele Muccino (2006)

  [6/10]

  "Will Smith does a very good job portraying the desperation and despair, but the script doesn't allow him any room to display any range of emotions -- good depth, but no breadth."

• Reptile Room, The by Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler (1999)

  [6/10]

  "A nice continuation of a series that could quickly spoil if the narrative style remains so fixedly consistent."

• Romancing the Nephites by Becky Paget (1993)

  [5/10]

  "There's nothing outstanding about this story, but there were no glaring flaws either. A simple story that is well constructed and has appeal to a less demanding audience."

  Average score: 6.33