By Emilio Frenk
Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Chris O’Dowd, Ella Purnell, Finlay MacMilan, Terence Stamp, Allison Janney, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench and Samuel L. Jackson.
Rating: Excellent
Tim Burton makes his returns after two years of “Big Eyes” with his 18th feature film “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children” and this is such a great film.
The movie tells the story of Jake (Asa Butterfield) a 16 year old boy who takes care of his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp) who he practically grew up with.
Everything will change for Jake when a tragedy hits his family and finds the clues of the stories that his grandfather told him when he was younger. This clues will lead him to a journey of Wales in a quest that will lead him to the truth.
In Wales she will meet Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and her peculiar children and he discovers that the stories his grandfather told him are true. But not everything is a fairy tale and Jake will find out about the enemies in form of monsters called “Hollows” led by the evil Dr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) who wants to take away the powers from Miss Peregrine and the children and now it’s up to Jake to stop the creatures before it’s too late and will change the course of his life forever.
It’s always a privilege watching a Tim Burton movie and here it’s no different with “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”. I love the fact that he used here his stop motion animation which is one of things that he has been known for in his career and it reminded me of Burton going back to his origins of movies like “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Beetlejuice” where he used this tool in multiple occasions and works everytime he uses it.
The screenplay written by Jane Goldman who wrote “X-Men: First Class” and “Kingsman: The Secret Service” which is an adaptation of the novel by Ransom Riggs is written with so much precision and does lead you to parts that may sound confusing but her script explains every single detail and works in every level.
The direction by Burton works is brilliant and he is the master of this genre and nobody does it better than him.
The performances by Eva Green and Asa Butterfield were top notch, specially by Green who plays a wonderful and memorable character. If you want to see also a great performance by Green watch the show “Penny Dreadful” on showtime where she is outstanding.
The cinematography from Bruno Delbonnel, who’s most notable work is the french film “Amélie” , “Inside Llewyn Davis” and this marks his third collaboration with Burton which he previoulsy worked with in “Big Eyes” and “Dark Shadows” is beatiful and I love how he plays with the contrasts of both worlds of Jake when he is with Miss Peregrine and when he is with his family.
This time the score was not composed by Danny Elfman, who has collaborated in multiple occasions with Burton and the music was composed by Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson and like the movie, the score engages from beginning to end.
“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” I put it as one of the year’s best films and for Tim Burton fans you will not be dissapointed by this movie.