Besides his eccentric grandfather Abe Portman (Terrence Stamp), and the bedtime stories about peculiar children which populated their relationship, Jacob Portman (Asa Butterfield) appears to be entirely mundane. That is, until Abe is murdered by a monster only Jake can see. In an attempt to uncover the mysteries of his grandfather’s life, Jake travels to a small Welsh island to explore the orphanage in which the old man grew up. It is here that Jake meets the peculiar children: a group of individuals with exceptional powers and talents. They live in a time loop — an endless repetition of the same day in 1943. As in any fantasy plot, an intrinsic evil exists and Jake must battle alongside these children and their captivating guardian Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) to secure peace and safety.
Tim Burton’s cinematic adaptation of the 2011 Ransom Riggs novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is largely a compelling and an unusual tale. It is Eva Green’s performance as Miss Peregrine that really sells the story: she is dynamic, authoritative, yet deeply caring. Green captures an elusive element of absurdity that Burton works so hard to capture throughout the film. Samuel L. Jackson also portrays his character, the villainous Mr. Barron, exceptionally well. In a role which centres around his maniacal search for immortality, Jackson comes off as gleefully wicked.
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The shortcoming of the casting, however, presents itself through a lack of racial diversity; every character except for Mr. Barron is white. Considering Hollywood is currently being criticized for its whitewashing, you would hope that a veteran like Burton would push for diversity . . . unfortunately, this is not the case.
Riggs’ characterization of the children in his novel is quite rich, and the cinematic adaptation seemed to fall just short in substance. Even in the climactic fight between the children and Barron’s monstrous Hollowgasts, the painstaking effort to make each child’s peculiarity helpful, such as the ability to control plant growth, was evident. The result seemed to be like a childhood competition; everyone gets a participation prize, no matter how they perform. That being said, overall the children radiate an innocence and warmth that makes them very hard to dislike.
Like many of Burton’s films, his latest drips with symbolism. The constant interplay of light and shadow is a clear allusion to the conflicting ideals of good and evil in this fantastical world. Subtle references to birds and flight, such as the final scene of Miss Peregrine standing outside a structure that resembles a cage symbolize the notion of freedom to express one’s uniqueness (or peculiarity, if you will).
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, despite a lack of character depth, is a really engaging film. The cinematography of the beautiful garden and striking underwater scenes make you wish the unrealistic world of the peculiar children was a tangible one. There is just a touch of macabre creepiness, and combined with a childlike whimsy, the film marks itself as pleasantly absurd.
