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Just got back from seeing Peter Pan tonight and I have to agree with Orson that it's a great movie. The costumes were mostly wonderful, the acting very capable. The scenery was excellent. I thought it was an interesting decision to give a slight tinge of artificiality to everything to underline the mythic aspects of the movie. The Darling children's bedroom ceiling is a wonderfully rendered cotton candy sky. The London streets when they are shown have more in common with stage sets than a real attempt at potraying London. In Never Land, clouds are really solid beds of cotton serenely sailing under a literally gently smiling sun. (At one point Pan and the children are perched on a cloud and you see the edge of the cloud bend under their weight as they peer down. Awesome touch. ) This is fine and works. This movie is a faerie tale.
Peter Pan is the god of Never Land. As Orson points out, it 'sleeps' in winter when he is gone and wakes up and blooms when he is around. Orson doesn't make a lot of this, but I must confess that I found this idea so interesting that I would give the movie four stars strictly for having this bit of spiritual and mythic chutzpah and in doing it making it something that is never stated. At all. It is simply shown. I mark this as the sign of a Good Movie in that the the director, P.J. Harvey, assumes that the audience gets it or they don't. It's not integral to enjoying the movie, but it is one of those clever plot devices that, I think, adds dimensions to the movie for them that know that would otherwise not be there and raises so many questions the mind boggles. Exactly what is Never Land? What is Pan? How did Hook get to Never Land? How long has he been there? What's Hook's function? If Pan can do anything in Never Land as the movie somewhat suggests, then literally nothing is beyond the realm of possibility. Hook could be some kind of slave in Pan's world, forever doomed as the evil Hook. Small wonder he wants to kill Pan and be set free from him.
My main complaint are those moments when the movie dips into vaudeville for the sake of the children. I realize it is a children's movie and it probably worked for the children in the theatre. However, it didn't do much for me. Thankfully, these little moments make up a microscopic portion of the movie.
I disagree with Orson in his belief that the movie highlights why young people must be protected from their romantic feelings. The 'sexuality' in the movie is so charming and true to the idealized ages of the children that you could take your mother to see it and not feel at all uncomfortable. (Those of you who can watch sexual things with your mom and not feel uncomfortable are wierd. ) I do totally agree that one of the underlying adult themes woven into the movie is the pain of losing children, but I saw it as more of a treatment of general loss of children or childhood innocence than any kind of sexual abandon.
It's a wonderful film. Like Orson, I wept openly a few times. Go see it or I'll come to your house and pee in your shoe.
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Pan's connection to Neverland made me wonder whether it was simply a dream he lived or another of his toys. I definitely came away with the thought that Neverland could not have predated Pan.
I liked the Aunt. I thought she was a fresh and unpredictable element.
I was also intrigued by the Wendy's attraction to Hook, who, as was always the stage convention, was played by the same actor as Mr. Darling and shared many characteristics. In fact, this was the only aspect of the film that I thought of as slightly "off".
I hate to admit it, but I expected more than I got out of the movie. I expected more both in the visual aspect and in the storyline. :::shrugs::: My kids and I got bored 2/3 of the way through.
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Ah. Sorry to hear it. I think it's probably one of the better young adult films in ages. Right up there with 'The Black Stallion'. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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) I do totally agree that one of the underlying adult themes woven into the movie is the pain of losing children, but I saw it as more of a treatment of general loss of children or childhood innocence than any kind of sexual abandon.
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