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The Definative Peter Pan
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Jul 12, 2007
142
of
149 people found this review helpful
Like many others, I went with my 6-year old and 11-year old on Christmas Day, hoping for a simple distraction from the chaos of the morning, but what we saw was more than a distraction...it was spellbinding.
For those who have actually READ Peter Pan, instead of relying on Disney to tell the story, you know that there is a level of complexity and emotion that was never present in the many film and stage productions. It was never meant to be a simple story about boys childish fantasies, but rather a subtle but clear story about the very real fears that the all children experience about growing up. There are emotions and expectations that surge through an adolecent child, and dealing with those (sometimes) overwhelming issues, is a complex dance for both the adolecent and the adults around them.
In this film production of Peter
Pan, there is no shying away from the emotional issues. An example: The story of the Lost Boys is a tragedy of children who wandered away from their caretakers and were never reclaimed by them, and their eagerness for a mother and their rememberances of the power of kisses tears at the heart strings...these are no happy band of children that prefer the life they lead, these boys simply chose to not remember the pain of the past, and have no reason to think of the future they are missing. In the Disney world, their lives are a choice and they stay behind despite Wendy's influence, but in this film, Wendy's presence reminds them of what they have truely lost and they face not only the fears of emminent adulthood, but also the fear of not finding a family to love them and brave the return to the "real" world.
The archetypes of Hook, Wendy, Tinkerbell, the Mermaids , the crocodile, and Peter are clearer than ever to audience, and that makes their interactions fraught with emotional chaos...jealousy, anger, fear, love, innocence...they cannot interact without conflict and more importantly, the conflict is without a clear winner. Innocence and love, while dancing in the air, appear to be in harmony, but are not...anger and jealousy join forces but betray one another, and all the while the underlying ticking of the crocodile clock tell us time is running out for all of them...
This is not a pretty picture of Peter or even of Wendy, but what it lacks in simple beauty it more than makes up for in complex interaction and subtle messages, creating the beauty of a violent storm or a simple daisy...you have to look beyond the obvious to see.
The acting was wonderful, Wendy in particular, and the trueness to the story makes a wonderful tale. My only dissapointment lies in the flying scenes...the spectacular visuals of faeries and castles and mermaids is brought low by technologies inability to have someone fly who doesn't look like they are wearing a waist harness. But as complaints, it is a very mild one. |
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