Review: Peter Pan

Rated PG | 113 mins

The family film is one of the only genres of the medium that the industry can never quite master. Most movies that are content appropriate for kids, and advertise themselves as fun for adults as well, usually fail because they’re one of three things. (1) Too cutesy. (2) Too kiddy. (3) Too obvious. I couldn’t even attempt to make a list of how many pictures have been torturous to view, because they are characterized by one of those adjectives. But if I managed to write one, the latest version of Peter Pan, directed by P.J. Hogan, would not be on it. This movie is sweet and honest with its viewers, always maintaining a delicate balance of humor, romance, and adventure. Imaginative and inventively wondrous, it has the ability to sweep every viewer away. Peter Pan is engagingly brilliant, a stroke of true genius—so amazing that it’ll be a complete shame if it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

I’m confident that I watched at least one of the original versions of Peter Pan when I was younger, but I don’t remember anything about them. Going into this movie, all that I knew about the story was that it featured a boy named Peter, that he could fly, and that Michael Jackson thought that he was him. Hence, it was no surprise that I was so greatly immersed in the plot, and the ideas that it presented. The experience was wildly unpredictable for me; I was able to respond to it in a wildly infectious and loving way. The world that Hogan has created is hypnotizing, and I am confident that anyone, even if they’re familiar with the story, will be transfixed by it.

For those of you who are in the minority (as I was), and have absolutely no clue as to what Peter Pan is about, please allow me to indulge you in the following explanation. Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), a British girl, is visited in her home by Peter Pan, a boy who can fly and lives in the magical world of Neverland, where children remain young for an eternity. Wendy hesitantly leaves the world as she knows it and goes with Peter to Neverland, along with her two brothers, John and Curly (Harry Newell and George MacKay). They, too, learn to fly like Peter; all you must do to do so is think happy thoughts (or touch fairy dust). In Neverland, they must fight along side Peter against his arch-enemies, the villainous Captain Hook and his fellow pirates, but they are happy for quite awhile. However, when Wendy thinks about love and the other luxuries of growing up (which are absent in Neverland), she soon convinces several of the kids there that they should return home, even though Peter refuses to leave. This leads up to a mystical climax that’s completely satisfying. It’s a big and grand story, and has a sort of epic feel about it, which is pretty astonishing, considering the material.

And while the gigantic scope of the film certainly enhances it, the best part of the entire story is rather small—Ludivine Sagnier as Tinker Bell, the tiny fairy that accompanies Peter everywhere he goes. Sagnier, the sexy French actress who starred in both of Francois Ozon’s latest efforts, Swimming Pool and 8 Women, has become one of my favorite modern-day performers. She’s actually quite miraculous in this role; even though she doesn’t have any dialogue, her talented expressions make the movie. She’s both hilarious and saddening; I’m not using hyperbole when I say that her work the most poignant and expressive of the year. This fact may be scary, but it’s true.

The visuals are also extremely impressive, and it doesn’t take us long to notice this. When the kids leave for Neverland, and soar past the planets in the solar system, I was stuck by a feeling of joy. I grinned the entire way through Peter Pan, simply because of the eye candy, let alone the other dazzling features. Though it may sound silly, this deserves to be a contender at the Academy Awards, two months from now. It’s one of the biggest technical triumphs of the year.

There have been many adaptations of the classic novel Peter Pan, but this one most definitely deserves to be recognized as the best. If it isn’t, then I’m going to scour my local video store, in search of unbelievable greatness in one of the previous editions of the film.