Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

In the world of book-to-film adaptations, fans could do worse than this one.

Based on the novel of the same name, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children follows Jacob “Jake” Portman (Asa Butterfield), as he deals with the fallout of the sudden and mysterious death of his grandfather, Abe Portman (Terence Stamp). With cryptic words and seemingly made-up stories about invisible boys and floating girls leading the way, Jake finds himself on a quest to figure out if all those crazy tales his grandfather used to fill his mind with are actually the real deal. Soon enough Jake’s grandfather’s stories are confirmed: Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and her band of peculiar children are indeed real, trapped inside a “loop” of time where they relive the same day over and over again, forever staying the same age and never truly allowed to leave. Slowly, Jake comes to the realization that he may be something slightly more than ordinary, something more peculiar, but with enemies hot on their trail hoping to destroy any peculiars in their path, it becomes only a matter of time before Miss Peregrine’s slice of heaven is permanently destroyed, displacing and potentially killing everyone living inside.

Tim Burton may be hit or miss in the filmmaking department nowadays, but having his name attached to a film will always keep people like me interested enough to take a look. Whether the film is actually good or not varies, but it can’t be denied that the guy has an eye for making films that look unique and new, while at the same time scaring children half to death just because. Visually, this film is stunning – pretty much a given with Burton’s work at this point – but it isn’t until nearly a half hour into the runtime that he’s allowed to really cut loose and get all weird on us. The second the titular character shows up is the very same second the whimsy and wonder of this world really comes to light, but to be honest, twenty minutes in and I was wondering why people make such bad movies based on books, then another ten minutes after that I found myself smiling at all the entertaining visuals associated with this fully realized world Miss Peregrine and her peculiar kids inhabit.

Whether it be the crude and creepy stop-motion-esque “puppets” one of the peculiar children summons, or the way a child barely five feet tall can carry a giant, life-sized carrot across the lawn, Burton gives us these characters as they are with barely an explanation other than the fact that they’re “peculiar”. All that works just fine for the most part, but if you’re looking for any real character work, there are only a couple halfway-realized characters here – mostly the kids that directly help Jake on his quest – that are actually worth investing in. Granted, each does at least have one or two moments where we get a sense of who this child is, what their peculiarity entails, and how they fit into the rigid schedule Miss Peregrine has set for their infinitely looping days, but most don’t go much further than that.

Seeing a new wrinkle in the every day lives of these children while taking the time to show them as real people simply trying to get by in their shitty time-loop situation is where a lot of the movie’s fun an entertainment come from, but with scripting this weak and lazy, this film might have gone up in flames if it weren’t for Burton’s distinct flare. The script’s faults aren’t only limited to paper thin dialogue and annoyingly amateurish exposition threatening to ruin a lot of the fun, but it’s the weird pacing that annoyed me the most.

Instead of having a foreboding cloud of danger looming over the entire movie the threats our heroes will eventually have to face are mentioned only in passing after the first ten minutes, then really don’t become too much of an issue until the Hollow leader, Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson), shows up to throw a wrench into the proceedings. Backed by what are essentially invisible Slender Man-like tentacle monsters, the villains in this film really only shine as the third act approaches, but even then, the vast changes to the subject material makes for a computer effects driven action sequence that screams of forced action just for the sake of having some. Don’t get me wrong, this scene obviously looks great and is still fairly fun to watch, but the plodding nature of most of what came before clashes with the all out brawl that happens by the end of the film. Couple that with some odd choices the script makes in the way they format the film as a whole, and it seems like the filmmakers chose style over substance more than anything.t

While not nearly as good as it could have been, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is entertaining enough to be considered a success, even if it stumbles from lazy and amateurish scripting more often than not. The premise is fun enough to forgive a lot of what happens here, but with a third act that barely resembles anything from the book and some acting and pacing issues that are almost impossible to ignore, Tim Burton has made a visually impressive, yet critically flawed take on a great book that deserves better than what’s presented here. I have no doubt that an adaptation of this book’s sequel will find its way into theaters sooner rather than later, but if changes aren’t made at the scripting level, I fear that a repeat will follow.