Title: Miss
Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
Director: Tim Burton
Released: 2016
Starring: Eva Green,
Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett,
Terence Stamp, Ella Purnell, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson
Plot: When his
grandfather is mysteriously murdered Jake (Butterfield) travels to an
island off Wales in search of answers only to find a time loop which
hides a school for extraordinary children who he is destined to
protect from the evil Hollowgasts.
Review: It’s been
a rocky road for the last decade or so with “Sleepy Hollow”
marking the end of what we could consider his golden period as he
instead went off to play around in the studio system, remaking his
childhood favourites. However with the release of “Frankenweenie”
and the overlooked “Big Eyes” it would seem that cinema’s weird
kid is keen to get back to his roots.
Adapted from the
novel by Ransom Riggs who constructed the story around unusual
photographs he had collected with the end result playing in many ways
like a 1940’s set version of the “X-men” and making it all the
more fitting that the script was written by Jane Goldman who
previously worked on both “X-Men: First Class” and “X-Men: Days
of Future Past”. Of course this story is seemingly written with
Burton in mind as it celebrates the abnormal and bizarre to create a
“Freaks” like family.
A pipe smoking Eva
Green (something we didn’t know we wanted to see until now) plays a
Ymbryne here which basically means she has the ability to change into
a peregrine falcon aswell as minipulate time which might be one of
the more unusual combinations of powers we have seen, but it does
enable her to hide the home in a continual time loop of September 3,
1943. Here she is essentially a Burton vision of what “Mary
Poppins” might have turned out in his hands and here heads up this
unusual children home which brings together children of exceptional
abilities.
The so called
“Peculiar children” are unquestionably the real draw here as they all come with
their own unique powers ranging from the aerokinetic Emma (Purnell)
who is forced to stomp around in lead shoes to stop her from floating
away, the super strong little girl Bronwyn (Davies) and the invisible
boy Millard (King). At the same time we also have the kids who might
have come from the mind of Burton had this not been an adapation with
the human beehive Hugh (Parker), a pair of masked twins and Enoch who
can resurrect both the dead and inanimate object all come with an air
of classic Burton to them. The only one who didn’t work was Horace
(Keeler-Stone) whose ability of being able to project his dreams like
a human projector ends up coming off kind of pointless and more
whimsical than anything close to an essential character.
While this was sold
a family fare, there is certainly a dark vein which runs throughout
the film be it Enoch using his powers to orchestrate his own fights
to the death between his twisted doll creations or the Hollowgasts
who are the twisted mutant forms of the evil wrights who battle their
mutation by consuming the eyes of Peculiars a grotesque spin on the
book which saw them consuming the souls of the children. As such in
many ways it feels like the kind of family movies of the 80’s and
early 90’s such as “The Dark Crystal” or “Raiders of the Lost
Ark” which weren't afraid to throw in some darkness in with the
fun.
Another aspect of
the film which stands out is with the design work for the characters
and locations throughout which sadly loses a lot of its charm during
the modern day segments with those set in the 1940’s being packed
with interesting details especially the Wrights whose flashback to
the experiments which caused their mutation dripping in steampunk
fantasy while Samuel L. Jackson clearly is having a blast as Mr,
Barronthe leader of the Wrights. Of course this is a world were the
kids can take a sunken ship and magically make seaworthy by combining
their abilities and as such works best when your not questioning the
fantastical logic it runs on.
The downside to the
film though comes when we get into the modern day which are painfully
bland and uninteresting compared to those set in the more colourful
and generally more interesting 1940’s sections. Even when we get
into the final showdown which see’s an army of skeletons battling
the Hollowgasts in modern day Blackpool, the best parts are filmed
in Blackpool tower whose styling makes it also seem like the 40’s
setting despite being modern day, but then as someone who spent their
childhood summers in Blackpool I can confirm that this is no doubt
pretty accurate considering how they love nostalgia and why the place
hasn’t really changed in the last 30 years.
A fun ride
throughout despite the departure of Eva Green earlier than I would
have liked, the pace is kept brisk throughout while for the fans of
Burton’s earlier movies, this will no doubt feel like him getting
back to making the films we’ve been wanting to see from him. I can
only hope that he comes back for a sequel as there is clearly more to
explore in this world and with the books currently set to be joined
by a forth novel in the series it would seem that there is still
plenty of material to draw inspiration from still.
