PETER PAN (2003) *1/2 Jeremy Sumpter is awfully smug to be playing Peter Pan. Someone needs to take that boy aside and say, "Dude! It's not like you're supposed to be fucking Dangermouse or something, and they have lousy hairspray on the dimension where you come from, and you have bat teeth!" Bat teeth or not, it's a pleasant-looking film. The sets and special effects are well done, and nicely balanced with nature shots. Nor is the problem the general plot, with which we are all familiar. Tinkerbell is irritating, as she so often-but not always-is, in these things. No, I'm guessing that the problem is that P.J. Hogan is plumbing J.M. Barrie's famous work for hidden meanings and undercurrents. I haven't read it, and am unlikely to ever do so, so I'm probably not the one to write a dissertation on this, even though it would likely be more entertaining than one written by someone who would be. Whatever the case, I think it's the silliness of the tale, rather than any subtexts relating to the shadowy yearnings of pre-pubescent eroticism, that give it such enormous appeal and staying power. And even if it isn't, shadowy yearnings are the sorts of things that lend themselves more readily to gently suggestive hints than videos of children thrown on top of each other and making googly eyes. It's too bad that Hogan gets to distracted by such things and feels the need to repeatedly spell them out, as he had the makings of a more interesting film had he merely followed the plot. Jason Isaacs makes a stylish Captain Hook, and hopelessly sub-Rick Moranis banking lackey, and there was a point early in the film where I thought that Olivia Williams might have something to offer, before she settled into the pedestrian sense of coralled actors going through the motions in front of a backdrop of fireworks and pre-teens wondering what can be done with each other.
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films page, or Index
go back home, or send me email
Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!