Dir: P.J. Hogan. Starring: Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, Lynn Redgrave, Ludivine Sagnier, Olivia Williams .
I have to admit I was a little frustrated coming out of Peter Pan. The immortality of J.M Barrie's play is justified – it really is a fabulous, resonating piece of work. Hook buggered it up all those years ago, and then I see the preview for Peter Pan – sumptuous, imaginative, true to the source – and I admit it, I got excited.
Too excited, with hindsight. Though P.J Hogan had proved his directing chops with Muriel's and My Best Friend's Wedding, let's face it, these films weren't exactly the faltering steps of an auteur. Peter Pan needs a Baz, but all it got was a bum.
The idea of never growing up is such a powerful one, not just in the context of childhood, but throughout our entire lives. Is it any wonder Captain Hook fears a crocodile with a ticking clock? It is the advent of time that these characters are running from, and at some stage everyone wants to stop time.
Peter Pan, caught somewhere between puberty and childhood, is trying to stop the inevitable march of responsibility, as is Wendy. The opportunity to fly away to a land of never-ending adventure seems to good to resist, but ultimately, I think
All the more disappointing, then, when this version of Peter Pan opts for an action movie dressed up as children's entertainment. A Boom Crash Spectacular! approach; an almost wanton carelessness that treads all over Peter Pan's delicate subtext like a drunk pissing on a flowerbed. I don't know what kind of pressure the studio exerted on this film, but there's a remorseless drive to Peter Pan's narrative. It's not to say there are no good bits, there are plenty – Peter's introduction to Wendy stands out – but they are squandered, and hopelessly overshadowed by the action. For a drama and comedy director, Hogan seems to have forgotten a really fundamental rule of filmmaking: Internal conflict will always be more compelling than any number of explosions. The film flirts with a variety of interesting emotional arcs, but it never settles on one, always scooting away for yet another action scene. This kind of directing is very patronising to children, and ultimately, I believe, detrimental.
Jeremy Sumpter as Peter and Rachel Hurd-Wood as Wendy are both excellent. Some reviewers have whined about Sumpter's American accent, but it's a very trivial objection, and let's face it; that's the reality a film like this gets made in.
The biggest treat to Peter Pan, far and away, is Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook. A theatre background has given this guy a stage presence to kill for, but there's also a very attractive unassuming quality to his work. Given such a scenery chewing role, Isaacs modulates it, wringing a little bit extra out of the token pathos he's served. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Hogan's directing. With all the computer-generated resources money could buy, Hogan has shot this film like a sitcom. NeverNever Land has been reduced to a stale series of soundstages, and it's very disappointing. Square, centred framing and really banal editing manage to rob the film of much of its momentum and magic.
Compared to Hook, which for all its mawkish commercialism, had a subtext and worked it through, and the fabulous 1953 Disney version, this is the Die Hard model of Peter Pan. Hogan may love the play, but he handles narrative like a gout-ridden Saint Bernard. The beautiful, moving, transcendent elements of this story fight so hard to break through, but are ultimately swallowed by an embarrassing lack of vision. I really wanted to love Peter Pan, but shared a sigh with its protagonist when he said "I don't know what love is." In the context of this film neither do I.
C+
Patrick Garson.
Comments?
gc(uk) Email Advanced Site Search
