Wednesday, 17 December 2003
escape to neverland
Through the generosity of a colleague, I found myself yesterday with passes to see the sneak preview of the new Peter Pan movie. So I packed up the kids, and resigned myself to a less-than-inspiring movie experience.
I was wrong.
The movie was visually stunning and emotionally rich. (I laughed, I cried…) The plot was surprisingly true to the original story, but with darkness and depth that I hadn’t anticipated. The young unknowns playing Peter and Wendy were wonderful—balancing innocence, humor, and sensuality with skill well beyond their years.
It opens for real on Christmas Day, and I give it a hearty thumbs-up. Be warned, however, that the younger kids with us (Weez and brood were there, as well, so we had ages 2, 5, 6, 7, and 9 to poll afterwards) were less mesmerized than the older ones. Weez and I loved it. Lane (age 9) said afterwards, with a real note of surprise “It was way better than I expected.” But Alex (age 7) was more blasť, and the younger kids found some of the darker parts troubling.
This morning I’m off to see Return of the King, which should be a very different experience!
eowyn rocks
I admit it. I didn’t read the books, even as a kid. Despite my great love of fantasy novels, Tolkien’s turgid prose failed to draw me in. So I was pleasantly surprised today by the wonderful scene in which Eowyn defeats Nazgul, the king of the Ringwraiths. The Nazgul warns her that no man can slay him—and Eowyn removes her helm, shakes out her hair, and tells him “I am no man!” (At which point I whooped out loud.) Then (with a little help from Merry) she kills him.
Nice.
The rest of the good lines in the movie clearly belonged to Gimli, whose comic delivery is a perfect foil to the depth and emotion of the rest of the movie.
All in all? An enormously satisfying and cinematic experience.
