‘Peter Pan & Wendy’ Review: David Lowery’s Reimagining of a Children’s Classic Is Refreshing and Wearisome
thewrap.comst-century version of such arrested development look like? One that has something to say to today’s grown-ups both mesmerized and puzzled by a fiery younger generation vastly different than them, and today’s kids, being raised by an unprecedented sense of individuality?
With “Peter Pan & Wendy,” soulful auteur David Lowery tries to find an answer with mixed results that’s fascinating and refreshing in parts and somewhat wearisome on the whole.An expressive voice throughout his wide range of tales, Lowery is the perfect storyteller for this experiment, despite the uneven outcome.
He has the right mournful temperament that runs through his filmography, from the grief-soaked supernatural tone poem “A Ghost Story” to the deeply compassionate “Pete’s Dragon,” that is unsubtly about the second chance that outcast rescue animals deserve.
That somber disposition of his, necessary to say a teary goodbye to childhood, charges “Peter Pan & Wendy,” a reimaginating in which Pan is considerably less haughty, Wendy is more crucial to the tale (so much so that the film should have been retitled, “Wendy & Peter Pan”), and the crocodile-fearing villain Captain Hook is afforded a deeper and more complicated backstory that ultimately muddies up Lowery’s intentions.
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