'Peter pan & wendy' review

By @nadreviews

Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Joshua Pickering, and Jacobi Jupe in "Peter Pan & Wendy" (2023)

​After bursting onto the scene with such films as “Pete’s Dragon,” “A Ghost Story,” and visual marvel “The Green Knight,” David Lowery became an exciting name to anticipate a new project from. When news broke of a live-action reimagining of Peter Pan with Lowery at the helm, ideas swirled around how the director would bring a coming-of-age classic to the screen. There seemed to be a fitting prelude to the task. Much of Lowery’s recent work explored wistful fables and lost souls. His stories often explored the imaginative, indescribable planes of consciousness where fantastical new worlds still felt grounded. As such, there is something about Lowery’s “Peter Pan & Wendy” that feels independent from a lot of disheartening Disney live-action remakes. But as he injects realism into Neverland, he loses the pixie dust that makes this adventure so magical.
 
The J.M. Barrie play, originally published in 1904, has sparked several re-imaginings from the 1953 Disney animated “Peter Pan” and the 1991 Steven Spielberg adventure “Hook,” to P.J. Hogan’s dreamy 2003 adaptation “Peter Pan.” Spielberg and Hogan had their distinctive visions that felt fully realized and committed. The former asks the question, what if Peter Pan grew up? The latter leans fully into the whimsy of innocence and first love. Lowery’s version exists somewhere in between realism and idealism. Based on Barrie’s play and the 1953 animation, “Peter Pan & Wendy” somehow feels both engaged in the material and disinterested in it altogether. The familiar skeleton of Peter Pan plays out in the story. The film follows young Wendy Darling (Ever Anderson) and her little brothers (Joshua Pickering and Jacobi Jupe), living in 20th century London with their mother (Molly Parker) and father (Alan Tudyk). On the eve of Wendy’s move to boarding school and about to leave her childhood home, she gets a visit from Peter Pan (Alexander Molony), the free-spirited boy who refuses to grow up. He arrives looking for his shadow, and alongside his fairy best friend Tinker Bell (Yara Shahidi), brings the Darling siblings to the ethereal world of Neverland. Once there, the group embark on an adventure and thwart the evil pirate, Captain Hook (Jude Law).
 
Lowery re-teams with his “The Green Knight” co-writer Toby Halbrooks to pen the screenplay for “Peter Pan & Wendy,” which doesn’t necessarily live up to its title of giving Wendy interesting exploration. She is admirably given an outgoing role in the story, and often takes the lead on action-based sequences as well as more emotionally charged moments. But the film tends to keep her at arm’s length when it comes to who she is beyond the circumstances, and what sparks her intense interest in what being a grown up would be like. Complex ideas are thrown into the narrative without really coming to fruition.
 
One such idea is the relationship between Peter and Captain Hook being given more history. This leads to the revelation of Captain Hook as a more tragic figure than expected, which paints Peter in a negative light. But the screenplay doesn’t engage in the history of their dynamics, and as a result it sits on the surface. Though the relationship does give Jude Law a bit more material to play with. The actor relishes in Hook’s backstory beneath the moustache-twirling persona. His lively performance is far and away the most engaging; he flies with an energy that the rest of the film can’t quite reach.
 
“Peter Pan & Wendy” is filled with glimpses of greatness. By taking on a more realistic approach to Peter Pan, Lowery shakes the glitter off of its iconography. He makes stunning use of Newfoundland landscapes, which add a natural quality to the film’s grounded and ethereal version of Neverland. The visual language and soundscape are a strong extension of Lowery’s vision. He presents the opportunity to dive deep into the wistfulness of this story, and the pangs of eternal childhood. Unfortunately, the screenplay is only halfway there, intrigued by fresh ideas but not fully equipped to explore them well. The film holds onto the familiar structure of the Pan story, and takes away the parts that make the possibilities of this world feel so enchanting. Lowery’s full vision feels broken into pieces between the two approaches.
 
“Peter Pan & Wendy” is now available on Disney+.