Review: MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
(FANTASY/ADVENTURE)
3 out of 4 stars 
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Ella Purnell, Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench, Finlay MacMillan, Terence Stamp, Chris O'Dowd, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Lauren McCrostie, Pixie Davies, Kim Dickens
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and peril.
127 minutes
Verdict: Tim Burton's latest continues his honest if uncertain efforts to return to and build upon his proven strengths, but even if it's not one of his best films, it's a lot better than his worst.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN IF YOU LIKED:
DARK SHADOWS  (2012)
ALICE IN WONDERLAND  (2010)
X-MEN  (2000)
PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF  (2010)
JUMPER  (2008)

Tim Burton, at least by appearances, is in repair mode.  It's probably not passed him by that some of his more recent movies were fairly low points, at least in terms of quality, even if movies like ALICE IN WONDERLAND were box office giants in the moment.  But with FRANKENWEENIE, he returned to and expanded upon one of his earlier works in the medium of stop-motion animation (an art form that he can largely be thanked for revitalizing in the '80s and '90s), then with BIG EYES, he reunited with the writers of one of his most acclaimed films, ED WOOD, and made an unusually low-key, character-based film ostensibly for the arthouse crowd.  He seems to be getting back in touch with his most proven strengths, and while BIG EYES was certainly a step in the right direction, his latest film, MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, plays more ideally to those strengths.  In many ways, it's surprisingly closer to "classic Burton" than we've seen in a long while, even if that brings with it just about as many of the weaknesses of his earlier movies as it does their strengths.  MISS PEREGRINE'S... isn't one of Burton's best movies, but it is a hell of a lot better than his worst.  More importantly, for the better part of its running time, it's fun.
If you were one of the people who watched the trailer for this and thought, "That looks like Tim Burton's X-Men," you weren't far off, although there are a few big twists that are very much of the YA literature variety.  Asa Butterfield (from HUGO) plays Jake Portman, a discontent Floridian teenager whose life is given a good, hard shakeup when he finds his beloved grandfather, Abe (Terence Stamp), dying without his eyes, but before his last breath, Abe urges Jake to go to Wales and find Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), the magical headmistress of a children's home he used to tell Jake about in bedtime stories.  Believing his grandfather to be suffering from dementia, Jake is confused but traumatized by the experience, and convinces his dad (Chris O'Dowd) to accompany him on a trip to Wales, believing at the very least that it might provide some closure.  Soon after arriving at tiny coastal village where Miss Peregrine's mansion was said to be, Jake encounters a number of Miss Peregrine's "Peculiars," children with supernatural features or abilities, and they lead him through a "time loop," to meet Miss Peregrine, herself.  She and her Home for Peculiar Children relive the same day in 1943 on infinite repeat using her ability to manipulate time, always restarting just before a German bomb would destroy the mansion and all its inhabitants, but while Miss P.'s peculiarity (in addition to also being able to transform into a peregrine falcon) can keep her and her children safe from bombs, a group of artificially mutated Peculiars led by one Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) know about the time loops as well, and are intent on catching and killing young Peculiars in order to devour their eyes.

As with a lot of Burton's past films, the narrative isn't exactly this movie's strong suit.  Adapted from a book by Ransom Riggs with a screenplay by Jane Goldman (regular writing partner of Matthew Vaughn on films such as KICK-ASS and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS), a lot of the world-building is bogged down by slightly over-designed world-building, and between all the creature types and time-traveling mechanics, not all of it makes clear sense, but the movie thrives when it isn't obligated to plot machinations.  The exposition on the threat represented by Mr. Barron and his "Wights" and "Hollowgasts" is particularly confusing to the point that it's just more practical to go with it rather than attempt understanding it, although it does seem unfortunate that the movie goes out of its way to suggest parallels between Abe's bedtime stories (with a safe haven from destructive monsters called Hollowgasts intent on killing those who are Peculiar) and historical events of Europe in 1943 without either following through on those parallels or at least using them as shorthand.  It makes me wonder if a movie that was a tone poem or character piece on an experimental level like MY DINNER WITH ANDRE or a feature-length film in the mode of UN CHIEN ANDALOU wouldn't be a marvelous thing for Burton.  I'd like to see that.  He's regularly dismissed as a director of style-over-substance, and it's true that visuals are probably his most prominent and consistent tool, but in the right circumstances, he's also very good at characters, comedy, and of course, tone, and in MISS PEREGRINE'S..., he's better than he's been in a while.  A lot of that is casting, and although Burton's rarely had trouble assembling an all-star cast, this ensemble hits the right notes with particular accuracy.  Eva Green, whose role is a supporting one rather than the lead it's marketed as, is a properly quirky English headmistress with a big Sherlock Holmes-style pipe and dazzling smile framed by an ethereal Gothic weirdness.  Samuel L. Jackson, whose shock of white hair and weird eyes initially gave me unpleasant reminiscences of JUMPER, is a fairly funny, over-the-top, optic nerve-slurping villain, playing Mr. Barron as a more enthusiastic, mischievous baddie, as opposed to the blandly cold YA villains of a similar vein.  The young leads, Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell (from MALEFICENT) are typical Burton pure-of-heart types, the awkward, dark-haired young man and the otherworldly, pale blonde woman, but both of a more attractive sort than some.
In the end, it runs a tad long, and as I mentioned before, it's easier if you just run with all the fantasy gobbledygook and not worry too much about it (I'm not sure it all comes together in a really comprehensible way anyway), but between all the fun characters and the weird world of MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN, there's fun to be had in the midst of horrifying doll battles (either a return to stop-motion animated effects for Burton or CGI convincingly used to emulate stop-motion) and a big battle between gruesome Slenderman-esque monster with tentacles and a Ray Harryhausen-style army of skeletons in a seaside carnival.  I mean, it's not great, but it's pretty fun.

                                                                                                                                                        Images via 20th Century Fox