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'Pan': Doesn't Quite Pan Out
By Michael S. Goldberger, iBerkshires Film Critic
07:50PM / Thursday, October 15, 2015
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If it's just been driving you crazy lo these many years, wondering how exactly Peter became Peter Pan, then you might want to see director Joe Wright's prequel to J.M. Barrie's iconic fairy tale. But there'll be a price to pay, me hearty.

Written by Jason Fuchs, the literary interpolation, while conscientious and respectful of the source material to which it sings a paean, could never stand on its own. Piecing together a series of typical backstory clichés, delivered in a competent but rather dark cloud of special effects, moments of connection to the original are its only oases.

Furthermore, it's difficult to decide whether or not you'll want to take little Taylor and Brittany to this PG offering. While the plot is a tad intricate for small fries, and the violence level pushes the kiddy flick envelope, the more precocious set will be disappointed by the lack of video game Sturm und Drang. But what occurs to this somewhat older viewer is that spending nearly two hours carefully explaining a fantasy is in itself a contradiction. Fantasies are fantasies ... sorcery and phenomena meant to boggle the mind. Spare me how a trick is done.

All the same, it's become commercially fashionable to leave no classical story undisturbed, and it is apparently again time to gild the tale of Tiger Lily, Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Still, since our real world is full of so many perplexities, like infinity, the meaning of life and just how in heck this trickle-down theory is supposed to eradicate poverty, now at least we know from whence Peter Pan emanated. It is the odd earmark of our society that while children may not believe in Santa Claus, they nonetheless know his origins.

Happily, some fairly decent acting performances prove a saving grace in this particular case of mythical supposition. While his Australian accent is a bit off-putting until our ears attune to the twang, Levi Shane Miller makes for an affable Peter. But note he's a rather somber kid here, a thoughtful sort. His main determination is to find out whatever happened to the mother who, for reasons we'll learn later, had to abandon him.

So it only follows that, like in all good fairy tales, where for some unsettling reason the fantasy is that our little hero or heroine is bereft of live parents, the story begins in a London orphanage, circa WWII, curiously departing from the original's Edwardian setting. It's a relatively nasty place run by the pilfering Mother Barnabas (Kathy Burke), who has quite a scam going. Psst ... she sells little boys to pirates from Neverland, led by the infamous Blackbeard. Having his turn at the stereotype, Hugh Jackman plays the dastardly buccaneer with schmaltzy enthusiasm.

For Blackbeard, it's all about the fairy dust, the Neverland unit of currency for which his subjugated masses endlessly toil in the mines. Whoever has the most fairy dust rules, a metaphor that shouldn't be lost on Willow and Atticus. But there's also bunches of prophetic lore suddenly occupying the blackguard's loathsome concerns. Reaching back into the biblical and mythical, and symbolized by the pan flute necklace Peter wears, legend has it that Peter just may be the "chosen one" ... the boy who will overthrow Blackbeard and save Neverland. Well, we'll see.

Acting as a semi-mysterious Sacajawea to Peter's quest is Rooney Mara's Tiger Lilly, princess of the Fairy Kingdom. She's hip to the whole megillah, but, for various reasons poignant or not, holds back information until it can be determined whether the visitor is indeed who Blackbeard fears he is. Hey, this kid could save the day. The occasion is also an opportunity for her Majesty to strike up a contentious flirtation with Mr. James Hook, the handsome fellow who escaped from the pirate's clutches with Peter and the comically duplicitous Smee (Adeel Akhtar).

Garrett Hedlund as Hook channels a young Harrison Ford, just in case we were missing that adventuresome swagger in our moviegoing, and Mara is OK as his spiritually superior heartthrob. I bet she eats kale, too. But that's just side business. What we really want to know is can Peter fly, and if so, how gloriously? Without giving it away, just in case the whole Peter Pan thing has eluded you, suffice it to note that the filmmaker is oddly stingy in this area. If you were to take to the streets in protest, your placard might read, "Less Gobbledygook, More Flying!"

Problem is, in resurrecting and expanding on the fabled saga, the film takes a decidedly responsible path that, while paved with good intentions, leads us to a ponderous, thinking person's Peter Pan. It's all grownup and kind of makes sense, which is completely at odds with the "Pan" in us that urgently declares, "I don't want to grow up."

"Pan," rated PG, is a Warner Bros. release directed by Joe Wright and stars Levi Miller, Garrett Hedlund and Rooney Mara. Running time: 111 minutes

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