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Peter Principal
FILM: Peter Pan
(PG)
DIRECTOR: P.J. Hogan
STARRING: Jason Isaacs,
Jeremy Sumpter
WHERE: Wide release
GRADE: B+
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| Captain
Marvel: Jason Isaacs does double duty as daddy Darling and
the malevolent Hook (pictured) in P.J. Hogan's Peter
Pan. |
To
fly, one only requires a sprinkling of fairy dust and a few
happy thoughts, a simple alchemical reaction known to all fans
of Peter Pan. Director P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding)
has apparently been experimenting; his big-screen version of
the classic J.M. Barrie tale abounds with all the buoyancy of
a true believer.
While adapted for screen and stage multiple times over the
years, Barrie's book has never been translated quite accurately
from the page -- the action/adventure part, sure, and the more
precious aspects of its never-grow-up philosophy, but not so
much the bittersweet between-ness of Pan and certainly not the
darker facets of his persuasive personality. In that regard,
Hogan's Peter Pan is a truer fairy tale, equal parts
fantasy and frisson; Pan (Jeremy Sumpter), Wendy Darling (newcomer
Rachel Hurd-Wood) and Hook (Jason Isaacs) move in a psychologically
satisfying world that just happens to be wrapped in stunning
cotton-candy digital imaginings straight out of a child's storybook.
Make-believe is obviously a milieu in which director of photography
Donald McAlpine (Moulin Rouge) and production designer
Roger Ford (Babe) excel. There is a visual magic to every
frame of this film, a richness only complemented by gorgeous
casting. Sumpter's Pan is a charming and stubborn scamp with
just a hint of menace, Hurd-Wood's Wendy a sweet, Victorian
(and literal) lady in waiting. Following stage tradition, Isaacs
performs daring double duty as Mr. Darling and Hook, and a more
enchanting, evil captain of the Jolly Roger there never will
be.
Not all is well in Neverland, however. Tigerlily is brutally
banished from the primary plot, and Tinker Bell is all but ruined
by Ludivine Sagnier's buffoonish, silent-era squints and squeaks.
Their dismissals change (and simplify) the Pan dynamic. Other
narrative liberties taken here and there are a bit easier to
accept, fitting more seamlessly into the spirit of the original.
Hogan, who co-wrote the Peter Pan screenplay with Michael
Goldenberg, gambles audaciously with Pan and Hook's final face-off,
but the result is cheeky and charming and, rarer still in literary
adaptations, utterly forgivable. Oh, the cleverness of him!
A sad coda to this production, revealed as the credits roll,
is executive producer Mohamed al Fayed's loving dedication of
the film to his late son, Dodi al Fayed, who died in a Paris
car crash with Princess Diana, a pair of children who grew up
but will never grow old. -- Carlson
Other Stories This Week in Movies:
Film Review
21 Grams
House of Sand and Fog
Film Listings
Other Stories by Shala Carlson and David Lee Simmons:
Film Review 12 30 03
Cover Story 12 23 03
Film Review 12 23 03
Shala Carlson and David Lee Simmons Archives
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