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UK/Australia/USA 2003
Directed by
P. J. Hogan
105 minutes
Rated PG

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2.5 stars

Peter Pan

Synopsis: In turn-of the-19th-century London, Wendy Darling tells bedtime stories to her two younger siblings, Michael and John. One night Peter Pan appears at their window and imagination becomes reality.

Even though very few people read the actual J. M. Barrie original text anymore, we all probably can recall enough images of Tinker Bell, Neverland and Captain Hook from illustrated book versions to have a rough familiarity with the story and, in particular, with Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. For any film-maker tackling a cinematic version of the tale, the issue is then, not ‘what’ but ‘how”. Spielberg for his 1991 version of the story, Hook, chose to update the yarn somewhat and cast Robin Williams for the part. The result was a deserved commercial flop and although Dustin Hoffman did an excellent Hook there was nothing else to commend it. Whilst Spielberg crashed and burned clearly producers Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick, who had previously collaborated on Stuart Little 2, thought someone could do it better. After all, it is a timeless classic.

This new version opens with a futuristic building atop a small island. At least it appeared to until that turned out to be a trailer for Thunderbirds. P.J. Hogan’s version emulates the original Barrie setting. It’s very Mary Poppins-ish. Picture-book cosy, open fires burning brightly in home-sweet-home Edwardiana, parents and kids to match, even a St Bernard in a nannie’s cap to seal the cute factor. From the man who gave us the gloriously black comedy Muriel’s Wedding, this is a worry. The bad news is that there is no let up. The film is very well made, with top class post-production work, and it is certainly a lot classier than Spielberg’s effort, but it is awfully bland. There is not a scene here that we have not witnessed a variant of many times before and the pacing of the movie is as flat as yesterday’s fizzy drink. Even, I would say, by kid’s standards this is ho-hum. It’s not funny, it’s not scary, it’s not cool and Peter Pan is, frankly, pretty twee. Spielberg was at least right to recognize that we don’t live in the 19th century anymore.

From my understanding the production was not without trouble and Hogan came close to being thrown off the project so I don’t know how much he can he held responsible for its play-safe tepidity. There is the odd moment, the children watching Hook from fairy floss pink clouds in powder blue skies, a cavern of twinkling fairies, for example, that are visually delightful but this is short on invention. Olivia Williams is fetching as Mrs Darling, but by and large the cast do nothing to bring the dramatis personae to life.

There is, however, something which seemed very odd about the film. Embedded in Barrie’s adventure fantasy is the theme of the loss of childhood innocence and the inevitable progress to adulthood and its responsibility. Hogan and his co-writer Michael Goldenberg have reduced this to the sexual awakening of Wendy. At first this appears to be the projection of the adults and, as I understand it, in keeping with Barrie’s original text and it has a certain humour. But as the film progresses, we are treated to more and more scenes of a proto-romantic nature between Wendy and Peter in their special world. Wendy (who looks like a young Liv Tyler) is given to gazing longingly into Peter’s eyes and asking him does he feel love. There are too many allusions to adult sexual relations (mother/father, husband/wife) to discuss in depth here, but given that both Wendy and Peter are pre-teens and the film is designed for a pre-teen audience (rather than a paedophilic) one must ask what is this all about. Is this sexualization of childhood the angle Hollywood thinks will win the pre-teens. Nicky Webster, anyone?

Call me old-fashioned but what would be pushing the envelope would be to introduce some charm back into children’s film.

 

 

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