Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Review

Book to film adaptation of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is directed by none other than Tim Burton [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns] but somehow the film lacked his trademark touch. Based on the 2011 bestseller Ransom Riggs’s book of the same name, the film had a lot to explore, but the director could not repeat his Alice in Wonderland magic in this much-loved fantasy world.

The film follows primarily two characters: 1.) Miss Peregrine, the lady who turns back time every 24 hours in order to evade the consequence of a single day and save a few peculiar children from 1943 Nazi bombs and from some invisible monsters who want to suck out their eyes; 2.) And an ordinary teenager Jake who is very much influenced by his grandfather Abe and his stories of monsters with real photographs.

When Abe suffers a brutal death at the hands of some monsters, Jake realized the stories he heard from his grandfather were actually true. Tracing the meaning of the stories and the wishes of his grandfather, Jake convinced his father to travel to Wales Island Abe wanted him to visit.

Tim Burton’s gothic cinema here discusses the relationship between a grandfather and grandson and their relationship with another time and the magical place known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The story takes time, almost the whole first half, to introduce characters and build the plot, but the second half had less thrill barring a few funny scenes.

The representation of forces of darkness is innovative but somehow the conflict falls short with a clumsy narration. The storytelling and narrative were too slow in the beginning, but the moment you expected something big to happen, it fell flat. However, the film has few good performances, including Asa Butterfield as Jake, and Eva Green as Miss Peregrine. Eva is really good in such vamp characters and she is very well supported by all the children, as well as a very unlikely villain played by Samuel L. Jackson.

To be very frank, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is not that great for a theater watch, even though it’s in 3D. I am not too sure but the film might be a bit scary for some kids. So, this needs to be taken care if you plan to spend a weekend watching this movie with your kids on DVD.

The film is indeed good in visual storytelling but somehow lacks the required narrative element. Even though the film has garnered mixed reviews from film critics, I doubt the makers have any plan for a sequel. However, those who like this film might look forward to experiencing Goldman’s amusing script.