Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Review

7 out of 10

Cast:

Eva Green as Miss Alma LeFay Perigrine

Asa Butterfield as Jake Portman

Samuel L. Jackson as Barron

Judi Dench as Miss Avocet

Rupert Everett as Ornithologist

Allison Janney as Dr. Golan

Chris O’Dowd as Franklin Portman

Terence Stamp as Abraham Portman

Ella Purnell as Emma Bloom

Finlay MacMillan as Enoch O’Conner

Lauren McCrostie as Olive Abroholos Elephanta

Hayden Keeler-Stone as Horace Somnusson

Georgia Pemberton as Fiona Fruanfeld

Milo Parker as Hugh Apiston

Raffiella Chapman as Claire Densmore

Directed by Tim Burton

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Review:

Tim Burton is no longer the subversive filmmaker of his youth; insert Hot Topic cliché joke here, if you like. His aesthetic is everywhere, and there’s an entire generation of people immersed in the worlds of Edward Scissorhands, Jack Skellington, and Beetlejuice. As a director, he hasn’t been the best judge of material – he’s far more interested in tone and his art design than whether or not the script actually works. Ed Wood, his best film, benefits from the marriage of Burton’s style with strong writing, and that is always the sweet spot that I look for when it comes to his films. It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.

With Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Tim Burton has found that place where his artistic sensibilities and the source material interlock like puzzle pieces. Perhaps it’s because the original novel by Ransom Riggs seems tailor-made for Burton – this story of time travel, weird children with supernatural powers, monsters, and villains is full of oddities and misfits, but Burton also finds the emotion of the story, thanks to a good script by Jane Goldman that distills the novel to the essentials.

Jacob (Asa Butterfield) is mourning the loss of his grandfather Abe (the wonderful Terence Stamp), but while everyone else assumes otherwise, Jacob knows that Abe’s death was no accident. Abe’s passing motivates Jacob to research the bedtime stories that his grandfather would tell him – stories of children trapped in time, of a kind woman named Miss Peregrine who watches over them, a world of monsters that Abe would hunt across the world.  These stories land Jacob and his father (Chris O’Dowd) to the mysterious island of Cairnholm, where Jacob discovers that his grandfather’s stories were real – there is a place where the Peculiar Children live, guarded by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), a Ymbryne who can create loops in time to protect them all from the hollowghasts, led by evil Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson). Barron wants to live forever, and for that plan to succeed, Barron must destroy Miss Peregrine and her children. Jacob, who is the only one who can see the hollowghasts, is the only one who can stop Barron.

The script deviates from the novel in substantial ways, but Tim Burton and the script by Jane Goldman manage to keep the story focused on Jacob and his relationship with his grandfather, as well as with Emma (Ella Purnell), a Peculiar who is lighter than air and can manipulate it. The relationship between Jacob and Abe is very reminiscent of Edward’s relationship with Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands. Terence Stamp warmly plays his role not unlike Price. The first half of Miss Peregrine is otherworldly and ethereal; it’s when the plot kicks in that the film stumbles in tone. All the customary Burton freakshow weirdness is there, and it’s used to wondrous effect, especially with the children. Eva Green was the best thing in the Dark Shadows adaptation, and she’s just as good here – loving, tough as nails, but refusing to let the children free and experience their own lives. Asa Butterfield is earnest and effective, and he’s at his best with Stamp, but he also has a sweet camaraderie with the rest of the cast, especially Ela Purnell and the character of Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), a Peculiar who is jealous of all the attention Jacob is getting. Samuel Jackson is only missing a mustache to twirl, his work is so over the top, but far more effective are the creepy hollowghasts, who look wrong in all the best ways, with Lovecraftian tentacles and strange, jerky movements.

It’s during the film’s final act that Miss Peregrine falters, which is not unfamiliar to Burton’s films as a whole; he’s always had difficulty sticking the landing. The film’s internal logic stops making sense when it’s convenient for the story to move forward and for the characters to do what they need to do. The climax is oddly disjointed when it should be flowing, and the threat of Barron and his hollowghasts should be more terrifying than they are.   There are moments of restraint when Burton should be letting loose, but as this is ostensibly a family film, Tim Burton has his hands tied. A much more disturbing, perhaps scarier climax would have worked better here, and unfortunately Miss Peregrine isn’t as frightening as it should have been.

But when the movie works, when the ethereal, quietly dark aesthetic of the film is the most effective, Miss Peregrine is Tim Burton doing some of his best stuff since the animated Frankenweenie. Burton has always been at his best when the story and the script are simpatico with his needs as an artist, and Miss Peregrine’s first hour is as good as Burton’s ever been. I just wish he had stuck the landing. But for fans of the novel, as well as fans of Tim Burton, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children might be just what they want. Those wanting a more reckless, dangerous Tim Burton won’t find it here; instead, they will find a Tim Burton who is doing what he does best – giving us strange, odd worlds to play in.