Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, from the visionary director Tim Burton, is based on the trilogy of best-selling novels by Ransom Riggs.
Due in large part to Burton’s artful direction and ability to envision wonderfully macabre set pieces, the film gives an unforgettable motion picture experience with loads of enchanting and fascinating imagery.
After his beloved grandfather dies, Jake Portman, played by the young Asa Butterfield, discovers clues to a mystery that spans different universes and overlapping realms of time.
He decides to follow clues left by his grandfather and ends up at Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an orphanage in Wales that his grandfather used to stay at.
In a fast paced spiral, the mystery, danger and excitement deepen as Jake comes to grips with not only his own “peculiarity”, but also the special powers of the children who still live at the orphanage.
Though the movie is visually pleasing, the story line tries to compress and intermingle a characters and plot line from all three books of the trilogy, necessitating large portions of exposition-dumps in forced dialogue, just to get viewers up to speed.
Eva Green, Samuel L Jackson, Rupert Everett, Alison Janney, Chris O’Dowd, Terence Stamp, Judy Dench and Ella Purnell form part of the truly massive cast and their individual performances are not bad, though only Eva, as Miss Peregrine really gets any continued screen time to flesh out her character.
Some parts of the books feel underutilised, such as the intense bond between Jake and his grandfather Abe, in stark contrast to the lack of a bond between him and his own father.
The time loop device does however allow for interesting twists and character developments and is wonderfully managed by Miss Peregrine, who is the perfect mix between charming, sinister and eccentric.
Miss Peregrine has been keeping children safe from monsters known as Hollows since the beginning of the 20th century, when Jake’s grandfather was still a young man fighting in World War II.
Though the set and costume design and the created Hollows are done exceptionally well, the character development of all the “peculiar” children caught in this loop, leaves something to be desired.
For moviegoers who have grown accustomed to the truly magnificent collaborations between Danny Elfman and Tim Burton when it comes to soundtracks, this soundtrack does fall a bit flat.
This being said, the movie branches into different genres, touching on Gothic comedy, horror, action fantasy and coming of age, as well as the new genre of young adult fantasy, and if you are a fan of the books with an open mind or a moviegoers looking for a visually pleasing way to spend a few hours, this movie does deliver that joy.
