The Burtonesque universe, with its Goth Victorian elegance, outside sensibility, a fondness for topiary, and frolicking with re-animation, comes to vivid life in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Tim Burton has the inside track on peculiar, just look at his track record – Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, and Frankenweenie, just to name a few. Suffice to say, he knows peculiar. With Burton at the helm of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the film adaptation of Ransom Rigg’s novel is abundantly bizarre and enchanting.
Burton excels in situating a dangerous and alluring fantasy world in close proximity to the humdrum familiarity of our own world, a juxtaposition that imbues his films with a frisson of fear and delight. The world of the strange and impossible is right there, if we only turn our heads to look. In this film, a very plastic Florida is home to Jacob Portman, a wide-eyed Asa Butterfield, who has grown out of childhood innocence into accepting the rather boring reality prescribed by his Dad, yet the lackadaisical attitude towards work displayed by paterfamilias has made Jake a rather responsible type, which is lucky, because this young man can look forward to fateful decisions and fast action; it’s in his blood.
Grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp) would tell stories of his unusual childhood in Cairnholm, but did any of that really happen, or is it all just a figment of his imagination, now spiraling into dementia? When violence disrupts the Floridian placidity, Jake takes his grandfather’s words to heart, and the adventure begins.
The Home for Peculiar Children is just that, a safe place for children endowed with a variety of unusual abilities, run with imposing competence and an air of mystery by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green). Miss Peregrine is aptly named, for she is an ymbryne, who can change her form into a bird and manipulate time, qualities that prove most useful in the course of the film. The peculiarities of the children are wonderfully diverse, ranging from superhuman strength, the ability to spontaneously ignite objects, animate objects, and other talents somewhat more obscure, such as the sweet little girl with the curly hair whose table manners must inevitably differ from the norm. Miss Peregrine is devoted to her charges and maintains strict order in their daily lives, for there are also evil peculiars out to get them. Visually, this presents an art design challenge, one that Burton meets very well – distinguishing between the good and bad peculiars. The children, whatever their oddities may be, are kids first – whether rough or sweet, all attired in a vintage look that contributes to their appeal. Even the twins look like children at play with their hand-drawn masks. The baddies, on the other hand, led by a splendidly evil Barron (Samuel L. Jackson), are unmistakably vicious – it’s all in the eyes.
The intricacies of time-travel are tricky to navigate, but swept up in the dramatic action of this captivating film, no one has time for calculations. There are some horrifying ghouls, many quirky amusing moments (Alison Janney as Jake’s therapist), and beautifully breath-taking scenes.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Director: Tim Burton; Screenplay: Jane Goldman, based on the novel by Ransom Riggs; Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel; Editor: Chris Lebenzon; Cast: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp, Ella Purnell, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson, Kim Dickens, O-Lan Jones, Finlay MacMillan, Lauren McCrostie, Georgia Pemberton, Milo Parker, Pixie Davies, Hayden Keeler-Stone, Cameron King, Raffiella Chapman.
