Wendy. (12A.)
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Starring Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Kevin Pugh and Lowell Landes. In cinemas. 112 mins.
Everybody is searching for something original, something fresh, something unique. But the drawback with a singular vision is that it may only reach a singular audience. In a burst of perhaps foolhardy bravado inspired by the rave reviews for his debut Beasts of The Southern Wild, Zeitlin has chosen to reimagine Peter Pan, a notion with a 100% cinematic disaster rate: Hook, Pan, Come Away.
Growing up in rustbelt America, seeing their mother slaving away for the dirt poor clientele at her dingy diner, three siblings decide that there is no merit in growing up. One night they are whisked away on the roof of the night train by a kind of hobo Pan (Mack). His Neverland is a volcanic island full of wonders where they can run wild but which has rather exacting rules for avoiding ageing. The film's vision is like a Terence Malick version of Lord of The Flies with poetic voiceovers, fluid camerawork tracking youngsters marauding through nature and the regulation dose of eco-guff. It's annoying and precious and surprisingly grim but wondrously perverse and sprinkled with gruff magic.
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Starring Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Kevin Pugh and Lowell Landes. In cinemas. 112 mins.
Everybody is searching for something original, something fresh, something unique. But the drawback with a singular vision is that it may only reach a singular audience. In a burst of perhaps foolhardy bravado inspired by the rave reviews for his debut Beasts of The Southern Wild, Zeitlin has chosen to reimagine Peter Pan, a notion with a 100% cinematic disaster rate: Hook, Pan, Come Away.
Growing up in rustbelt America, seeing their mother slaving away for the dirt poor clientele at her dingy diner, three siblings decide that there is no merit in growing up. One night they are whisked away on the roof of the night train by a kind of hobo Pan (Mack). His Neverland is a volcanic island full of wonders where they can run wild but which has rather exacting rules for avoiding ageing. The film's vision is like a Terence Malick version of Lord of The Flies with poetic voiceovers, fluid camerawork tracking youngsters marauding through nature and the regulation dose of eco-guff. It's annoying and precious and surprisingly grim but wondrously perverse and sprinkled with gruff magic.
