Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Per Gunnar Jonsson 5/16/2024 3:21:16 PM 8.4

Before I start I should perhaps mention that, although I consider this a family movie, it is perhaps a bit on the scary side for the youngest member of the family. Anyway, personally I liked the movie and so did my kids. It did have time travel in it which I, in general, utterly dislike but it is a Tim Burton movie so it was already a foregone conclusion that it would be a wee bit bizarre anyway and it had Eva Green, which is one of my favorites, in it so that kind of made up for the time travel crap. The movie starts of by Jacob watching his grandfather being murdered by some mysterious being that only he can see. Of course everyone believes that he was hallucinating and so off we go with hospitals and shrinks and so on. Finally his parents allow him to travel to the island of Cairnholm in search of the mysterious Miss Peregrine. From their on we wander into the wonderful world of “Burtonesque” bizarreness, fantasy and general weirdness. Naturally Jacob meets Miss Peregrine and her kids. Kids who each have some peculiar talent each more weird than the other. Naturally there are a some bad guys lurking in the shadows as well. Bad guys intent on destroying Miss Peregrine’s shelter and … well, let us just say that they are not exactly concerned for the children’s wellbeing. I liked the bad guys. Both in their half human form and their more scary monster form. I especially liked Samuel L. Jackson as Barron, the boss bad guy. He really made an excellent performance. The one person I did not like was Jacob’s father. Apart from being a jerk he looked like he was on drugs or sleeping pills throughout the entire movie. On the whole this was perhaps not the best of Tim Burtons movies but it was still a good and enjoyable one. Decent special effects. The story worked despite the enormous paradoxes introduced by the time travel stuff. The characters did a fair performance. I did not regret the 2+ hours I spent on watching it.

Filipe Manuel Neto 12/23/2022 7:35:54 PM 8.4

**Despite the flaws, and some less than positive interpretations, it is a good film.** Tim Burton has already accustomed us to a surreal and fantastic style, and he almost always gives us very good films. This movie is no exception, giving us good entertainment. It's based on a book, which I've never read and I don't know what it's like, although I've heard that it's frankly more interesting than this movie. However, Tim Burton has already shown that he doesn't care much about this, in previous works that we have seen. The script is surreal and fantastic, based on a teenager's trip to the British Isles, to see his grandfather's place of origin, recently deceased. There, he discovers the ruins of the orphanage where his grandfather grew up, destroyed by German bombing and never rebuilt. And later he discovers that his childhood friends and the orphanage's governess are still alive and living in a time loop created the day the house was razed. And that there is a danger that will threaten them all. Overall, the film is quite satisfying, entertains quite well, and has a beautiful, well-written story. This is due, in large part, to the way in which he tackles difficult topics such as mourning and the family relationship between a father and a son. There are some little-explained details, loose ends, situations that don't get the attention they could have, and I thought the film takes a while to "gear" and really capture our interest. Among the cast of this film, no one stands out like the impeccable Eva Green. The actress has what it takes for the character that fits her, and she knows how to make the most of her charisma and the good quality of the material given to her by the screenwriter. Terence Stamp was also in good shape and did a good job. Among the younger actors, it is Ella Purnell who stands out the most on a positive note, although Finlay MacMillan and Lauren McCrostie also give us very satisfactory performances. Unfortunately, as far as the cast is concerned, everyone else can't achieve such a good performance: Judi Dench, Rupert Everett and Chris O'Dowd have neither characters nor screen time to allow them to do something really interesting. Despite having achieved some good moments, Samuel L. Jackson looks like a fish out of water in this work. But the one who really deserves a boo is Asa Butterfield. It was a bad choice, a casting error. The actor doesn't have charisma, he doesn't have the capacity to deal with the protagonist, and he wasn't very lucky with the material he received either (and here, the fault lies with the screenwriter and the way he conceived and worked his character). Far from capturing attention and holding our interest, the actor fades away from any of his co-stars. Another of the strong points of this film are the visual effects and the excellent CGI used. The house, for example, couldn't be more realistic, and the skeletons and ship look great on screen too. The cinematography was very well worked, the camera does a good job, the sets and especially the costumes and hairstyles are excellent and automatically transport you to the 40s. I really liked some of the places where the film was made, highlighting In particular, there is a famous Belgian mansion near Antwerp, which has been in ruins since the Second World War and which was demolished shortly after this film was released. The soundtrack does an effective job, but it doesn't bring us any surprises.

CinemaSerf 5/25/2023 9:12:12 AM 8.4

This reminded me a bit of the "Golden Compass" (2007) as Asa Butterfield ("Jake") finds himself drawn to a sleepy island where he encounters the eponymous, magical, Eva Green who hosts a group of children of all ages with special quirks who live in a time loop - the same day from 1943 - which should ensure that they remain safe from the predatory "Barron" (a wonderfully over-the-top Samuel L. Jackson) and his menacing monsters who are bent on capturing "Miss Peregrine" and eliminating the youngsters. It's a bit too long, but once it gets up an head of steam then Butterfield is an engaging hero well supported by the odd appearances from Dame Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, his father Chris O'Dowd and his inspirational grandfather Terence Stamp. The stories are enjoyably episodic, each child has their five minutes of fame to demonstrate their skills and personality, there's a soupçon of romance, a bit of mischief, teenage jealousy and yes, even the usually rather wooden Eva Green brings a little charisma to the screen with her Sherlock Holmes-style pipe before a denouement that knits it all together nicely. I like that this is trying to be a more sophisticated story for younger folks. Some of the issues - i.e. WWII - have resonance beyond the frivolity of the story and the increasing sense of menace is well developed by Tim Burton without becoming the stuff of sleepless nights.