On the one hand, Scottish novelist/playwright J.M. Barrie would be delighted to know that the characters he created, more than a century ago in a 1904 play, resonates strongly to this day.
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| Peter Pan (Alexander Molony, far left) and his new friends — from left, Wendy (Ever Anderson), John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe) — carefully spy on Captain Hook and his motley pirate crew. |
But although absurd, that isn’t this live-action film’s biggest problem.
Ever Anderson is excellent as Wendy Darling, but Alexander Molony’s Peter Pan is a sorry excuse for this “boy who never grew up.” Lowery — who also directs — fails to draw a credible performance from his young actor. Molony’s line deliveries are flat and uninspired, and he fails to project the mischievous spirit — the sense of magic — that is essential to this character.
Far too often, Molony seems disinterested: unwilling — or unable — to display more emotion than one would expect during a first-round script reading.
No matter how well everybody else performs, they can’t overcome this lack of a convincing Peter Pan.
That’s a shame, because in other respects — the Pan/Hook gaffe aside — Lowery and Halbrooks are faithful to many of the clever details Barrie wove into his play, while making subtle adjustments more appropriate to our 21st century.
The story begins in 1911, mid-Edwardian England, as 13-year-old Wendy laments her imminent departure to boarding school. Dismayed by the thought of no longer being able to play with younger brothers John (Joshua Pickering) and Michael (Jacobi Jupe), she defiantly proclaims that she doesn’t want to grow up.
That plea is heard by Peter, far away in Neverland; he immediately floats into the Darling children’s bedroom, accompanied by his fairy companion, Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi). Peter first must capture his errant shadow, which Wendy sews back on with needle and thread, stabbing him slightly in the process. She soothes the pain by giving him a kiss (a thimble); he later reciprocates by giving her an acorn pendant (all details from Barrie’s play).
Thanks to an application of Tinker Bell’s sparkly pixie dust, Wendy, John and Michael are able to fly into the night sky, following Peter’s directions to head “second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning.” Daniel Hart and Oliver Wallace’s lush score swells at this point, with an orchestral echo of Sammy Cahn and Sammy Fain’s “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!,” from Disney’s 1953 animated classic (a nice touch).
Alas, their arrival in Neverland is detected by Captain Hook (Jude Law, enthusiastically hamming it up) and his pirate crew, who blow the children out of the sky with a cannon ball. Wendy washes ashore on a quiet beach, and soon is spotted by a gaggle of self-proclaimed “Lost Boys.”
“But you’re not all boys!” Wendy observantly notes.
“So?” sneers one of the group’s girls.
“Well,” Wendy thoughtfully replies, “I guess it doesn’t really matter.”
(And no; of course it doesn’t.)
Tiger Lily, in turn, no longer is a hapless princess who needs to be rescued, but a warrior member of the Cree tribe that resides within Neverland (and is played with bravery and regal authority by Alyssa Wapanatâhk). Shahidi’s Tinker Bell also is more spirited and independent, and her jealous-of-Wendy subplot has been discarded. Instead, an ongoing bit finds Wendy dismayed because she cannot discern Tinker Bell’s soft and tiny voice.
John and Michael, meanwhile, have been captured by the pirates; this kicks off a series of skirmishes with Hook, as various characters get captured and saved, captured and saved again.
“Proud and insolent youth,” Hook repeatedly mocks, with distaste.
“Sad and sinister man,” Peter replies, with contempt.
It would seem like a harmless, endless bit of swash and buckle — the very nature of Neverland — except that Law’s Hook is reprehensibly nasty and genuinely deadly, even when chewing up the scenery with panache.
The fabled crocodile — which long ago bit off Hook’s hand, and also swallowed a clock, the ticking therefore signaling its presence — pops up quite spectacularly.
“That is one big crocodile,” Wendy breathes, in genuine horror.
Indeed. And a bit too nasty, while making lunch out of a couple of pirates, even though that occurs off-camera. Given this film’s supposedly gentle PG rating, the croc and Hook’s behavior are an eyebrow-lift.
Anderson deftly shoulders the story’s core dramatic elements. Lowery and Halbrooks have made Wendy the focus, rather than Peter; she’s the one who must learn that “growing up” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Anderson is always convincing: kind, gentle, plucky and — when necessary — courageous.
Pickering and Jupe are solid as Wendy’s brothers, and Jupe gets considerable mileage from Michael’s feisty determination to prevent the pirates from snatching his stuffed “Mr. Bear.” Most of the Lost Boys (and Girls) are interchangeably boisterous, the exceptions being Noah Matthews Matofsky, as Slightly, the eldest and wisest; and the adorable Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, as Nibs, the youngest and smallest.
Jim Gaffigan, as Hook’s sidekick Smee, is ill-served by the script. Gaffigan never seems to know how to shade the part; by trying to cover too wide an emotional arc, he fails to convince, from one scene to another. All the other pirates are appropriately gnarly and gruesome, but otherwise unmemorable.
Neverland is laden with cute details, such as an upside-down rainbow; Peter’s shadow also plays a significant role during two clever sequences.
The action is punctuated by three songs: a sweet lullaby titled “All Grown Up,” sung initially by Wendy’s mother, and later by Wendy; and two pirate’s shanties — “Behemooth” and “Ode to the Falling” — that boast droll lyrics.
Although very young viewers probably will have fun, I can’t see this film appealing to anybody else; it too often feels lifeless. Mounting a live-action Peter Pan apparently is difficult; earlier attempts — including Steven Spielberg’s Hook — have been similarly flawed.
This one, alas, is the weakest thus far.
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