MISS PEREGRINE Review — Even better than the amazing book

Thank you, Tim Burton, for taking the novel I loved so well and bringing it to the big screen with such dark creativity and brilliance. No other filmmaker could have adapted Miss Peregrine’s Home for Unusual Children so well, and even improved on it, to be perfectly honest. I was so thrilled with this movie I sat relishing it, (and the the fabulous song Wish You Were Here from Florence + The Machine) all the way through the credits, and about five minutes after the theater lights came on.

A critic friend of mine asked me, after having seen the trailer, “Isn’t it just another X-Men?” If any of the rest of you have that impression, let me disabuse you of it immediately. Sure, these kids have peculiar powers, but in more of an Edward Gorey sort of way. One is so light she has to wear lead shoes to keep her tethered to the earth. Another has the power to reanimate dead beings with the help of animal hearts. A third can project his dreams on a movie screen. One young girl in ringlets is amazingly strong. Another petite thing has a mouth in the back of her head. And a willowy ginger girl has a searing touch.

But what is our hero Jake’s (Asa Butterfield) special power? That remains to be seen. Literally. They are cared for by an entrancing Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), who has some unique powers of her own, which include protecting these peculiar children in a time loop, so they cannot be preyed upon by the baddies who seek them. The baddies, one of them played by Samuel L. Jackson, are the film’s only flaw — it’s a little tough to understand their origins and motivation, even if you’ve read the book. But trust me, just go with the flow and you will enjoy.

Where Burton and screenwriter Jane Goldman improve on author Ransom Riggs‘ intriguing tale is at the end — it reaches beyond the end of the first book, and extends into its sequel, Hollow City, giving it some cinematic twists with a heart stopping culmination that both sums things up and leaves it open for a sequel. Fingers crossed it kills at the box office, because I can’t wait for the next installment.

PG-13

2 Hours 7 Minutes

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 Miss Peregrine Review — Tim Burton Works Dark Magic