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Peter
Pan
All children
grow up. Except for one.
As a
substitute for "once upon a time," those words will do. Warmly
and wistfully intoned by actress Saffron Burrows, they pull
the viewer into director P.J. Hogan's classical take on Peter
Pan. Appropriately enough for a story that comes from
both a play and a book by the same author, the film feels
like stepping into a storybook, and yet set on a stage that
goes on as far as the imagination needs it to go.
It's
one of those stories that everybody thinks they know, and
Hogan acknowledges it. All the major elements are here, even
the fearsome Indian tribe. Working from a screenplay co-written
with Michael Goldenberg, the director has added depth only
hinted at in previous screen versions. At times this makes
the whole proceedings a little heavy for a movie so otherwise
sparkling with faerie dust, but the weight also results in
a rare family film that will reward repeated viewing.
For the
first time, a Peter Pan adaptation addresses the terrors
of growing up from both sides of the table. Of course becoming
an adult is scary to a child, fraught with responsibilities
and lacking in fun. From the parent's point of view, though,
a sense of loss is felt as their offspring put away childish
things. Yes, it's a classic crossroads moment when father
George Darling (Jason Isaacs) declares Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood)
will spend her last night in the nursery. On the cusp of womanhood,
the girl gets the choice to suspend her life by following
Peter (Jeremy Sumpter) to Neverland.
What
she doesn't count on is the experience teaching her the value
of growing up. Where Hogan takes us that is new is showing
us the pain and loss of her parents, fearing their children
will never return. In reality, that's what growing up means,
and thankfully younger children probably won't understand
the metaphor. But it adds rich texture to this familiar tale,
and also creates a Captain James Hook (Isaacs again) who embodies
the worst fears of what adulthood will hold.
Lest
you think this is somehow dank and dreary, it's not. Taking
an opposite approach from Peter Jackson, Hogan heightens the
presence of computer imagery. At no point does any exterior
feel the slightest bit genuine, but it works. It's the same
technique used by Baz Luhrmann in Moulin Rouge. By
calling attention to the artifice, somehow, we're freer to
revel in its imagination. This is theater, with cotton candy
clouds in a too-blue sky that are just as at home on the ceiling
of the nursery as they are over the skies of a London that
never quite was - and of course, triumphantly, hanging over
Neverland.
The other-dimensional
island is populated with fresh takes on the characters that
conversely look straight out of 1910. These are not Disney's
mermaids that swim in the lagoon; instead, you cannot doubt
Peter's warning that the eerie beauties would as soon drown
you as say hello. Though there is whimsy in the design of
the pirates, it's still mixed with the grotesque. And while
the mugging Ludivine Sagnier as Tinker Bell may have a modern
girl's cuteness, the rest of the faerie realm look straight
out of the infamous "photos" that fooled England in the early
years of the twentieth century. But it's a dare not to be
completely sucked in as Peter takes Wendy to observe a faerie
ball, a moment when both their burgeoning sexualities threaten
their make-believe without destroying their innocence.
As a
side note, the sound design is incredible. Do you want to
convince your children (because the wife is a harder sell)
that surround sound is an absolute necessity in your home?
When this movie hits video, this may be the one to push it
over the edge. Half the fun of the crocodile comes from hearing
that ticking behind you, before Hook does. Unless you're
seeing it in a crappy theater with bad sound. And when the
crocodile does appear, he's magnificent. It really is like
seeing an incredible stage production from the early twentieth
century, when budgets weren't nearly as important as spectacle.
The film
does take a little while to get going, for Hogan has chosen
to make Peter Pan a stranger to the Darling household. Parts
of the story usually left offstage play out onscreen, including
the initial loss of Peter's shadow. Instead, the stories that
Wendy tells are almost feminist variations of other familiar
ones - Cinderella, for example, fights off a pirate horde
before living happily ever after with her prince. (Another
case of foreshadowing for anybody who cares to look for it.)
Storywise,
the only odd addition is Lynn Redgrave as Aunt Millicent,
a character that exists to plant the seeds of Wendy's exile
from the nursery. She seems to serve only as a crutch that
allows George to seem not so much villainous (from the kids'
point of view) as easily pushed around. It does weaken the
idea of Hook being a projection of George's exaggerated bad
side in his children's mind.
That
weakening, however, is more than balanced out by Isaacs' incredible
performance. Playing Hook as a dissipated sot more self-aware
than usual, the actor wrings out some surprisingly subtle
moments, and never, thank heavens, gives a wink of irony.
If anything, his George is the less believable character,
owing a lot to David Tomlinson in Mary Poppins.
Of course,
a lot of the film rests on younger shoulders. Sumpter plays
Pan with just the right note of cockiness. Rarely called upon
to show much complexity, for indeed Peter doesn't have much,
his moments of uncertainty work well enough. Anchoring the
whole thing, though, is Hurd-Wood, a luminous find who will
no doubt have a long acting career if she wants it. The rest
of the kids seem like kids, a small triumph of Hogan's directing
skills that keeps them from being annoyingly precocious. Instead,
they all seem real - even Princess Tiger Lily (Carsen Gray).
Hogan
has even included the moment from the play in which the audience
has to assert its belief in faeries. Somehow he finds a way
in that makes the moment a joyful surprise. You may not walk
out of this movie believing in faeries (nor should you, necessarily),
but you will believe in a director who managed to maintain
a sense of wonder.
All children
grow up. But a master storyteller can make us forget that
we did for a couple of hours.
Rating:
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