Last week we rented the live-action movie version of Peter Pan. Lexie and I really enjoyed it for reasons we hadn't expected.
The kid who played Peter was fine. Watching the bonus featurettes on the DVD I learned that he had spent months working on swordfighting and months learning to fly. He did those things well and convincingly. I wish he could have spent a few months with a vocal coach. I found his lack of a British accent disturbing.
Jason Isaacs was wonderful as Captain Hook. You would not be surprised by this if you've seen the second Harry Potter movie and remember how he dominated each scene in which he appeared as Lucius Malfoy.
However, most important to this interpretation was the part of Wendy. Pan's romantic interest was absolutely captivating. The girl was right in every way.
The movie made the story compelling for us by bringing the theme back to the fore. The pirates and indians and flying and swordfighting were well executed and entertaining, but the conflict was all about Peter and Wendy.
Peter -- Eternal Youth -- flirts with the love of a woman, Wendy. This love might seem an infatuation, but the participants are on the cusp of growing up. Wendy's aunt has just this day declared that Wendy is a young woman and should no longer sleep in the same room with her younger brothers. This love, then, is not a mere fancy, or testosterone driven desire, but rather the sort which can only lead to maturity in familial bliss.
By pursuing this temptation toward maturity, Peter makes himself vulnerable. He is only "the best there ever was" while he remains unassailed by the responsibilities of adulthood.
Sure enough, Hook, his greatest foe, finds his weakness and defeats Peter. At the last moment Peter is revived by a gift from Wendy. She gives up her childish notions of romance, placing them irretrievably with Peter, while she chooses to grow up. With this one act she seals herself off from endless childhood and cuts off Peter from her adulthood. Thus is Pan made "whole" and set free.
Despite Peter's vocal stylings, the too tiny to appreciate fairy dancers, and the cheesy portions of the soundtrack (the music at the point of the great victory put me in mind of Ladyhawke), I thought that this was a really good film. I'd give it four out of five [your symbol here]s.
Posted to Movies and TV at May 24, 2004 9:47 PMTalking to Lexie about this was revealing. She didn't think much of the girl playing Wendy but really loved Peter.
Posted by: jmmj at May 25, 2004 1:11 PM