Release Date: December 25, 2003
Starring: Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Ludivine Sagnier, Harry Newell, Freddie Popplewell, Richard Briers
Directed by: P.J. Hogan
Written by: P.J. Hogan, Michael Goldenberg
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG (adventure action sequences and peril)
Believe it or not, P.J. Hogan’s live-action version of Peter Pan -- the mischievious young boy who refused to grow up and spent his days with his gang, the Lost Boys, tormenting the evil Captain Hook in the fantastical Never-Never Land -- is the 10th version of the tale ever produced, either for theaters or television, since the Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie originally put the story to paper in 1904.
For many viewers, though, their defining Peter Pan memory will be either Disney’s 1953 animated version, the 1960 television special starring Mary Martin, or Steven Spielberg’s 1991 film Hook, and even if it’s not, it goes without saying that Hogan’s film has some expectations to fulfill. Visually, it succeeds, and much credit should be given to the production team for their set pieces and special effects work. But narratively, this Pan is a bore, filled with a cast of unknowns who pale in comparison to the movie’s only standout performance, Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook.
Pan himself is played by the American actor Jeremy Sumpter, and he appears to have been cast for his looks alone, for although he does have the dashing smile that one would imagine the lad must possess -- he does, after all, convince the London girl Wendy Darling (Rachel Hurd-Wood) and her two brothers (Harry Newell and Freddie Popplewell) to come with him to Never-Never Land, where they will never have to worry about adult things again -- Sumpter lacks any sort of personality or screen presence that is key to the film’s central role.
Instead, Isaacs, who is no stranger to the villain’s role, having played it to great effect in The Patriot and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, outshines him as the bearded, tattooed Hook; after a certain point, it’s clear that Isaacs realizes he is running laps around the rest of the cast, and if there is any reason adult viewers should watch this Peter Pan, it is for his performance (Isaacs actually pulls double duty here; in a Pan casting tradition, he also has the role of Wendy’s milquetoast father).
Provided that audience members without young children are willing to stomach the rest of the production, there is quite a bit to see. The streets of turn-of-the-century London are done in fine form with the help of special effects, and though they constitute only a small part of the story’s setting, the drab grays and browns work in wonderful contrast to the colorful likes of Never-Never Land. Pan’s journey to the island where children never grow up, with Darling children, involves vivid CGI work and the pulsating technopop strains of James Newton Howard’s original score. And Never-Never Land itself, with its wild array of pirates, mermaids, Indians, and the Lost Boys, is a unique and well-realized re-imagining of the famous literary setting.
Disappointingly underused is Ludivine Sagnier as Pan’s fairy companion, Tinker Bell (known strictly as Tink in this version); the up-and-coming French actress gets few close-ups and is reduced to a pinprick of light bouncing about the screen in typically chaotic fashion. Also wasted are the talents of the veteran character actor Richard Briars as Smee, Hook’s right-hand man, who hams it up in the few scenes he has.
As the first strictly adapted live-action version of the story in 79 years -- Spielberg’s Hook twisted the tale in the retelling, though it was great fun just the same -- P.J. Hogan’s Peter Pan was obviously prone to some disappointment. If not for Jason Isaacs’s performance as Hook or the splendid production design, then the best reason to watch this is for its attempt at a more adult interpretation of the struggles of slipping from adolescence into adulthood. But any message that the film attempts to convey is sunk by its mediocre cast and overall bizarre quality, as though Hogan’s endeavor to tell a children’s story with an adult’s sensibility and a youngster’s spirit was simply too much to handle.
-- Craig Roush (crr225@nyu.edu)