Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Directed by: Tim Burton
Written by: Jane Goldman - Based on the novel by Ransom Riggs
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Eva Green, Ella Purnell, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris O'Dowd, Terence Stamp, Allison Janney, Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Finlay MacMillan, Lauren McCrostie, Raffiella Chapman, Hayden Keeler-Stone, Georgia Pemberton, Milo Parker, Pixie Davies, Cameron King, Joseph and Thomas Odwell, Louis Davison, Kim Dickens
Adventure/Fantasy - 127 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 28 Sep 2016
Written by: Jane Goldman - Based on the novel by Ransom Riggs
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Eva Green, Ella Purnell, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris O'Dowd, Terence Stamp, Allison Janney, Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Finlay MacMillan, Lauren McCrostie, Raffiella Chapman, Hayden Keeler-Stone, Georgia Pemberton, Milo Parker, Pixie Davies, Cameron King, Joseph and Thomas Odwell, Louis Davison, Kim Dickens
Adventure/Fantasy - 127 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 28 Sep 2016
Tim Burton trademarks saturate Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I saw a spoonful of Edward Scissorhands, a serving size of Beetlejuice, a dash of Big Fish, and a ladle of Alice in Wonderland. Miss Peregrine is for kids and pre-teens; however, so there isn’t so much Sleepy Hollow. Based on the best-selling 2011 novel by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine is one of those nebulous young adult products which fall somewhere between too scary for kids but too squishy for teens. There are some cornball jokes only an eight year could love but that same kid will quake a bit at monsters eating children’s eyeballs and Samuel L. Jackson’s razor teeth. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is an enjoyable return to Tim Burton fantasy but lacks both the depth of Edward Scissorhands and bite of Beetlejuice.
In another ‘family comes in all shapes and sizes’ themed story, home is where you hang your hat. The concept of you being the best you can be and the superiority of the individual is also front and center. The studio launched a social media campaign with #StayPeculiar to tell all the individuals out there to flock to the theater as one and revel in their combined idiosyncrasies. Families, even ones you end up creating with likeminded friends, will not judge your specific difference and will welcome you as you are.
In another ‘family comes in all shapes and sizes’ themed story, home is where you hang your hat. The concept of you being the best you can be and the superiority of the individual is also front and center. The studio launched a social media campaign with #StayPeculiar to tell all the individuals out there to flock to the theater as one and revel in their combined idiosyncrasies. Families, even ones you end up creating with likeminded friends, will not judge your specific difference and will welcome you as you are.
That is comforting for the children in Miss Peregrine’s care. Some children have particularly amazing and useful skills as being able to control and shape air, start anything on fire, or grow flora from seed to fruit in a matter of seconds. Other not so overtly useful skills include the boy with bees living inside him and the girl with a carnivorous mouth on the back of her skull. It takes all kinds I guess. If they were X-Men, they would still be the oddest mutants by a long stretch. Yet, these children are not children in a chronological sense. Miss Peregrine (Eva Green, The Salvation), is an ymbrine, a woman who can turn into a bird and control time. She created a time loop for the children in 1943 and repeats the same day again and again.
In the outside world, it is 2016, but for Miss Peregrine’s kids, it is the middle of World War II on a small island off Wales. The children do not age physically as time stands still, but they do not advance mentally either even though they retain all of their memories from the past 70 some years. The youngsters still want to play and most do not chafe at the strict discipline imposed on them. But the ethics of willfully keeping kids as kids in perpetuity is not explored in this film. Jake (Asa Butterfield, Ender’s Game), an outsider keen on understanding the world of peculiars, makes a face at the situation, but has other matters requiring attention first.
Jake’s grandfather, Abe (Terence Stamp, Big Eyes), died and Jake suspects foul play. Abe spent time in Miss Peregrine’s home, told Jake fantastic stories about all of the children from so long ago, and these memories, most of which Jake refuses to believe in until they smack him in the head, may solve the mystery of Abe’s death. Miss Peregrine, whose role reminds us of a dark Mary Poppins, does most of the explaining but only a few facts at a time, wouldn’t want to overwhelm the audience or solve the mystery too quick.
Lucky for Jake, one of the girls takes a liking to him and a possible romance blooms. Emma (Ella Purnell, Maleficent) provides the rest of the answers but maintains just the right amount of ‘yes we can’ vs. ‘no we can’t’ about the pair’s possibility of togetherness. She’s just a semi-immortal girl in a 1943 world and he’s a modern man of 2016, even though viewed through a particular prism Emma is probably 90 something years old. The rest of the peculiar children remain mostly off screen except for the introductions and one particular skill which will come in handy at the exact time it is necessary.
I assume motivations and explanations are far clearer in the book because exactly why there is a subset of adult peculiars who have no ethical dilemmas murdering children and eating their eyeballs is murky at best. The monsters, known as Hollows, are the most Beetlejuice like in their looks but most of the characters, especially Jake and Emma, could have used a more Edward Scissorhands approach to add some weight. The sympathy we felt for Edward does not extend to the peculiars. There was an understanding and a desire to protect Edward’s naiveté from the outside cruelties abusing him for their selfish ends. Miss Peregrine’s characters inspire no such meanings or feelings which is why this material should settle well on 12 year olds. For the rest of us, it’s another admirable Tim Burton visual feast, but a middling product.
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