Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) [Blu-ray]
Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy

Tagline: Stay peculiar

From visionary director Tim Burton, and based upon the best-selling novel, comes an unforgettable motion picture experience. When his beloved grandfather leaves Jake clues to a mystery that spans different worlds and times, he finds a magical place known as Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children. But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and learns about their special powersand their powerful enemies. Ultimately, Jake discovers that only his own special peculiarity can save his new friends.

Storyline: When Jacob discovers clues to a mystery that spans different worlds and times, he finds a magical place known as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. But the mystery and danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and learns about their special powers... and their powerful enemies. Ultimately, Jacob discovers that only his own special "peculiarity" can save his new friends. Written by 20th Century Fox

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 16, 2016 Is there still magic in the cinematic universe after the end of the Harry Potter franchise? Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children would seem to be a fitting substitute, at least on a surface level, since it involves a gaggle of "gifted" youths whose special powers have made them protectorates of the titular Miss Alma Peregrine (Eva Green), a gifted individual herself who is able to transform into her surname's bird form. The film's source book by Ransom Riggs was a fascinating variation on what is called an "epistolary novel," with (in this case) vintage photographs taking the place of "found" objects like letters and memos. It gave the book a really distinctive identity that would seem to play perfectly into the visual aesthetic of director Tim Burton. It's perhaps a little odd, then, that Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children turns out to be a fairly staid enterprise, at least by typical Burton standards, one that can't quite meld its Potter-esque (and it might be added X- Men-ish) tendencies with what might be called a certain Groundhog Day aspect to the plot mechanics. The film is certainly entertaining, but it by and large fails to connect emotionally despite some overt attempts to tug pretty mercilessly at various heartstrings.

Before Miss Peregrine and her brood are introduced, though, the film focuses on teenager Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield), who is forced to check up on his addled grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp), since the elderly man is under the impression some nefarious types are out to get him. Jake shows up at his granddad's house to find it in disarray, and his grandfather near death in the woods behind the home. Abe grabs Jake's arm before expiring and emits a seemingly baffling array of information about "loops" and "1943". Jake is understandably distraught, especially when he sees some kind of spectral monster approaching, an entity his co-worker Shelly (O-lan Jones) can't see. (Earlier on the way to Abe's house, both of them had seen an odd looking African American man with glowing white eyes standing in the middle of a fog laden road.)

Jake's concerned parents Frank (Chris O'Dowd) and Maryann (Kim Dickens) get him into counseling with Dr. Golan (Allison Janney), but are a little freaked out themselves when Golan agrees with Jake that following up on his grandfather's long running bedtime stories about a home for "peculiar" children in Wales might help the young man reach some closure after the death of his grandfather. Despite some misgivings, Frank, an avid birdwatcher, agrees to take Jake to the isolated island of Cairnholm, a rustic location with just a handful of residents and one solitary hotel.

Jake breaks away from Frank and finds Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children, but not in the state he hoped to. It's an abandoned wreck, having been bombed by the Luftwaffe and seemingly full of ghosts—including one that seems to think Jake is Abe, at least for a moment. In just one of several unexplained phenomena that the film's screenplay never adequately explains, it turns out that the kids Jake spots aren't ghosts but are in fact the very same children Abe grew up with decades ago, sent by Miss Peregrine to fetch Jake back to that aforementioned "loop", which turns out to be the aformentioned Groundhog Day aspect. In a somewhat baffling plot conceit (especially considering the fact that kids just plop out into 2016 to get Jake), the kids and Miss Peregrine have stayed alive for years by reliving the same day over and over, and it is in fact the day that the home ended up getting bombed (at night). Jane Goldman's adaptive screenplay struggles mightily to elide some of the illogic that's already on display, but this is one of many whimsically themed Burton films where preposterous plot mechanics simply need to be accepted in order for the film to make whatever sense it's able to muster.

Part of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children plays very much in the Potter or X-Men mold, with the kids revealing their powers while under threat from a supernatural force, in this case baddies called Hollows, one of whom is a shapeshifter named Barron (Samuel L. Jackson). But the film also wants to address Jake's coming of age, including his predictable realization that he's a "peculiar", too. A late development involving another mentor (called Ymbrynes) like Miss Peregrine, Miss Avocet (Judi Dench), just seems shoehorned into the proceedings for no discernable reason other than to give the always enjoyable Dench a little screentime. The "threat" posed by Barron has a couple of interesting twists, but when he actually shows up to confront Jake, it's weirdly anti-climactic and nowhere near as scary as it should be, ironically in part because Miss Peregrine is so forceful in the scene.

Adding to the diffused feeling of the film is an overstuffed cast that never devotes sufficient time to either the good guys or the bad guys to ever clearly delineate any of them. There are tons of vignettes sprinkled throughout the film, many involving the kids under Miss Peregrine's care, and there's some passing lip service (in more ways than one) to a burgeoning romance between Jake and Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell), but events just kind of happen and then the film moves on. There's whimsy galore throughout the film, as in the best Burton offerings, but there's little organic weaving together of elements that when taken on their own can be quite charming. The result is a film that does have a bit of magic, but one where the tricks seem hackneyed and the misdirection (again, in more ways than one) isn't especially artful.

I haven't been shy about complaining when filmmakers split one book into two films, as has happened repeatedly in the wake of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, but I actually wonder if Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children might have benefitted from such an approach. There's a lot to like in this film, but much of it is severely underdeveloped to the point that my hunch is some viewers will end up giving the whole a decided "meh", when perhaps a little more time detailing backstories of both the kids and the villains might have paid greater dividends. The film has neither the pointed darkness nor the bizarre whimsy that has defined some previous Burton efforts, but it at least has some amazing topiaries that could have been sculpted by Edward Scissorhands (yes, that's a joke). With caveats duly noted and with an understanding that technical merits are very strong, for those desperate for even a little magic in their lives, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children comes Recommended.

[CSW] -2.8- It was a lot of fun but it was also much creepier than expected. An excellent time loop fantasy based on a children's novel with the entire Tim Burton signature menagerie of bizarre characters. This movie is quite unusual however it is an enjoyable ride once you get used to it. I find that it was peculiar and plausible from the perspective of the inventive mind tinkering with time to create loops for the peculiar -- what an extraordinary hiding place for those who don't quite "fit in."
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box really enhances this movie.


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