Creatures who eat eyeballs to regain their humanity; children who are invisible or can turn you to stone with a glance or are lighter than air; and a sense of alienation felt by all. Yep, Ransom Riggs’ novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is right in director Tim Burton’s wheelhouse, as this tale of oddballs struggling to live in a world that would shun them touches on themes the director has based his career on, in the sort of perversely humorous environment he’s visited again and again. However, familiarity doesn’t breed a bad movie in this case, as the filmmaker, within this particular context, is able to inject a bit of genuine pathos into the grotesque situation, something that’s eluded him in similar, recent features (Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland).
Though this feature does suffer from Burton’s usual awkwardness when it comes to putting all of the elements into place, the film proves engaging once the basic premise is dispensed with. Seems that all around the world, hiding in plain sight, are refuges set up for peculiar children, created by Ymbrynes who can generate time loops that allow them to live in one place and time, as long as the loop is reset each day. The Ymbryne in question is Miss Peregrine (a perfect Eva Green), who, like others of her kind, protects a group of children with unique gifts from persecution. The special kids in her charge include Millard (Cameron King), an invisible boy, Emma (Ella Purnell), who is lighter than air, Olive (Lauren McCrostie), who can start fire with a touch, and a pair of masked twins (Joseph and Thomas Odwell) you don’t want to get a look at.
Their time loop from 1943 is disrupted by the arrival of Jake (Asa Butterfield), a teenager whose grandfather Abraham (Terence Stamp) recently passed away, but not before leaving his grandson with a cryptic message. He is told to go to the English island of Cairnholm to look for Miss Peregrine and warn her that Barron (Samuel L. Jackson), a humanoid out to regain his humanity by eating the eyeballs of peculiar children, is on the hunt for her and her charges. Not long after his arrival, Jake realizes he’s in way over his head but that he too may have a peculiar ability.
It takes a bit for Burton to gain his footing, as so much exposition must be dispensed with in the film’s first 20 minutes. But once Jake and his clueless dad (Chris O’Dowd) arrive on English shores, the story steadily builds a head of steam, one fantastic set piece topping the other, while in between times we become more and more enamored with the odd children at the movie’s core. Among the highlights are a sequence in which Emma is able to raise a sunken ship by blowing the water out of its hull and a rollicking battle between tentacled, spider-like humanoids and reanimated skeletons, an allusion to Ray Harryhausen’s classic battle from Jason and the Argonauts.
That being said, at more than two hours, the film does overstay its welcome while Butterfield proves to be a weak, unconvincing lead, coming off more as unsure of himself than heroic most of the time. Still, Green is a delight, the other child actors are captivating, and the Burton touch is in full bloom here. What with so many adaptations of young adult literature appearing on screen over the last decade, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Unusual Children manages to separate itself from the pack, making a distinct impression in a cluttered field of often half-realized knock-offs.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at [email protected].
For a review of The Birth of a Nation, go to the Cinemascoping Blog at http://llinoistimes.com.
