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Film
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Peter Pan
Move over, Elf. Australian director P.J. Hogan has put together an equally delightful holiday treat anchored by two magical lead performances.
Thursday, December 25, 2003
By Larry Carroll
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It would seem as though there were no reason to make a live-action Peter Pan movie right now: we're barely a decade removed from Steven Spielberg's much-derided Hook, a mediocre television version starring Cathy Rigby as Pan aired in 2000, and Disney seemed to put the last nail in the coffin just a year ago with the abysmal animated sequel Return to Never Land. Combine all that with the fact that the biggest star in this new Pan is Lynn Redgrave, and you can't be blamed for letting a yawn slip out while sitting through the decidedly unexceptional trailer for the film.
However, against all odds, director P.J. Hogan has reached back - before Spielberg, before Disney - to J.M. Barrie's source material, and put together a wonderful film for children and adults to go see together. The special effects are impressive but never obstruct the story, the mostly-unknown children actors are a delight to watch, and Hogan has re-introduced a Roald Dahl-type darkness to the proceedings that Walt Disney's 1953 version should never have side-stepped. Those who think they know the story of Pan, Wendy Darling, Captain Hook and company will leave this film feeling as though they've been treated to a brand new classic story and a visit with old friends, simultaneously.
Imagining a world full of fantasy, one where adventure happens every day and fairies, pirates and Indians are a common occurrence, won't be quite so hard after watching Hogan's love-fueled ode to a theater classic. Anybody who's accidentally wandered into their local mall's Disney Store for five minutes knows that Wendy (this time, newcomer Rachel Hurd-Wood) lived in Edwardian London with her younger brothers, dreaming about going on adventures.
We also know that a boy named Peter Pan (Jeremy Sumpter, Frailty) came along one night with his sidekick Tinkerbell (Ludivine Sagnier, wearing a tad more clothing than in Swimming Pool) and whisked them off their windowsill, taking them to the magical land where such adventure actually occurred.
What you may not know is that Wendy and Pan encountered some gorgeous-but-deadly mermaids along the way. Or that their innocent but potent first-love romance resulted in a heated kiss. You might also not have realized that they were such good actors - Sumpter (fourteen, in only his second real film) and Hurd-Wood (thirteen, a veteran of two school plays and nothing more) are off-the-charts as far as cuteness, athletic believability, line delivery and chemistry together are concerned.
These two children carry the entire film on their shoulders, selling each amazing special effect with a wide-eyed amazement crucial to the success of the film. Personally, I have a hard time watching eight out of every ten child actors presented in feature films - most are either far too "Hollywood" to care about or far too "everyday" to convey their lines and emotions properly - but between these kids and the Bolger sisters from Jim Sheridan's brilliant In America, I feel like I must now be damned to find Dakota Fanning in the next ten films I watch.
The adults are equally convincing, with Jason Issacs (Black Hawk Down) performing effective double duty as a cruel Hook and a sheepish-but-loving Mr. Darling, the beautiful Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense) speaking paragraphs with each warm smile, and Richard Briers (Spice World) as a humorous but wicked Smee. Redgrave, playing a character named Aunt Millicent manufactured by Hogan and writing partner Michael Goldenberg, is warm and fun to see, but the character doesn't seem to have enough of a purpose to warrant her creation.
The real triumphs here are in the look and the level of energy. When Pan teaches Wendy, John (Harry Newell, a twelve-year-old neophyte) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell, another newcomer, only seven when he was cast) to fly and takes them out of their bedroom window, Hogan isn't content to merely show the children floating through the sky - he takes them beyond the night, beyond the tropopause, past the ozone and into outer space.
Grabbing onto each other's feet, Pan rockets them past moons and stars in a breathtaking sequence that might be among the most memorable of the year. Similarly grand moments occur when the youngsters use a bed of clouds as a hiding spot, when Pan's shadow plays a game of cat-and-mouse, and whenever the boy who never grows up squares off against Hook in a mid-air swordfight. Your kids will "ooh" and "ahh", and you'll very likely catch yourself doing the same.
Tinkerbell, unfortunately, is one of the few disappointments of the film. Unable to speak a word, Sagnier is reduced to mime-like exaggerated expressions that become tiresome whenever she's on screen for more than a few consecutive seconds. The physical appearance of the character, an oddly dressed adult surrounded by glowing gold dust, feels more like it belongs in Roberto Benigni's abysmal Pinocchio, and they might have been better off to go with CGI.
It would have been nice to see some more development of the Lost Boys, who are practically interchangeable in this film - perhaps some time for that could have been developed if Aunt Millicent character hadn't been shoehorned in. The middle-to-final third of the movie seems to be lacking any sort of transition, which is awkward but not particularly hurtful, and the aforementioned kiss between Wendy and Peter might be a tad too lingering for some parental tastes, but others will find it appropriately powerful for the moment in which it occurs.
| Director P.J. Hogan, known primarily in America for his romantic comedies and for being confused with the guy who played Crocodile Dundee, takes a major step forward in his career with this film. Like Peter Jackson with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Hogan has proven himself someone who can take on a big budget and effects-heavy story and emerge with a magnum opus. With Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban not coming out until next summer, this might just be the best live-action film of 2003, one that you and the children in your life should not miss. |
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