Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Quick Impressions:
We’re still avoiding theaters, but when I realized visionary director Benh Zeitlin’s eerie take on Peter Pan was available for home viewing, I bought it immediately. I liked Benh Zeitlin’s previous film, Beasts of the Southern Wild with its memorable, Oscar-nominated performance by Quvenzhané Wallis (plus a strong supporting turn by Dwight Henry that deserved more attention and acclaim than it got). I love the way Beasts blends gritty, location-specific realism with fantastical, larger-than-life, waking dream sequences.
In my own creative projects, I attempt something similar, though I live in Texas, not Louisiana, and, honestly, I envy Zeitlin’s cinematic eye. I’ve only been to Louisiana a handful of times, but after watching Beasts of the Southern Wild, I felt like I’d lived there all my life and experienced the adventure of a lifetime there, too. The realism is so immersive, the fantasy so trippy. (Think The Grapes of Wrath meets the dark side of Jim Henson’s creature shop.) For me, part of what makes Zeitlin’s work so effective is the suggestion that if the surprising, unfamiliar reality he shows us does actually exist (and it does), then who can say that the fantasy elements might not somehow exist, too? If we’re paying so little attention to our own world that we haven’t even familiarized ourselves with the actual reality of others, then who knows what else we might have missed?
As I watched Wendy, I thought, “This is exactly the type of Peter Pan story I would expect from the director of Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Both stylistically and tonally, the films are so similar. So if you think, “Benh Zeitlin is such a fascinating auteur,” you’re almost sure to love Wendy. But if Beasts of the Southern Wild wasn’t for you, then chances are Wendy won’t be either. We liked it. My eleven-year-old daughter loved it and can’t wait for an opportunity to show it to her older brother.
The Good:
Though this project isn’t quite as successful as Beasts of the Southern Wild overall, Zeitlin does achieve something considerable with Wendy. Like many pieces of literature I love best, Peter Pan is so inextricably tied to London. For me, anyway, mention of Peter Pan always makes me think of London and Big Ben. Zeitlin replaces this with rural Louisiana and a train. And the substitution works.
I also appreciated the reworking of the original Peter Pan story. (I keep pausing over how to refer to the literary work. I mean, Peter Pan has had such a complicated life, first a play, then a novel, then a play again, then countless film adaptations.) In more traditional versions of this story, the Darling children live a comfortable life, complete with spacious nursery and servants. Wendy seems to fear and resent adulthood largely because it represents tedious social obligations and conformity to gender norms and fashion trends, manners. In Wendy, though, the children seem doomed to a life of servile poverty, and the adults alternate between seeming a bit too content (having given up all their hopes and dreams) and vaguely depressed (for the same reason). The picture of adulthood they paint for the children is hardly alluring. No wonder all the kids in town want to hop a train and run away. In most versions of Peter Pan, Mr. Darling and Captain Hook are played by the same actor. Here there is no Mr. Darling, just an overworked single mother with three kids and busted rodeo dreams. The adults in this small town have stopped looking around at anything. It’s almost believable that a monstrous volcano could be right there in plain sight. I mean, nobody would notice. No one ever looks up.
The film contains the same type of visual world building that made Beasts of the Southern Wild so captivating. Zeitlin’s films certainly have a distinctive look, and I loved Sturla Brandth Grøvlen’s cinematography. Ordinarily, I’m not crazy about shaky cam, but I liked it here. Hovering on the precipice of adolescence is an intense, emotional moment, so the energy and immediacy provided by the camera work totally make sense.
The (potentially depressing) home of the protagonist and her brothers is presented in vivid visual detail. In its own way, this ramshackle diner next to the only train out of town is as romantic as the Neverland to which the children escape. The scenes of magic and fantasy (filmed in somewhat exotic locations like Montserrat and Antigua and Barbuda) are breathtaking and gorgeous, but to an outsider’s eye, Louisiana looks just as exciting and mysterious.
For me, the film’s score (by Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin himself) is hands down the strongest part of the movie. I really love Wendy‘s music. It always pairs perfectly with the visuals and usually stirs powerful emotions, even at moments when the story struggles.
But almost just as good are the amazing performances Zeitlin coaxes from the young actors. As my husband repeatedly noted, Zeitlin obviously has a gift for directing children. Yashua Mack, the child playing Peter Pan is amazing. He has staggering charisma and seems perfect in the role. He would probably make a terrific Peter Pan in any production of the story, even a more traditional one. He just has the right energy for the part.
Devin France is also very good as Wendy. As Hushpuppy, Quvenzhané Wallis had a much meatier part to showcase her acting talent, so I wouldn’t expect any awards buzz for France, but she does play Wendy well. The other young actors are good, too, especially Gage and Gavin Nanquin playing Two-Boy and Krzysztof Meyn as the initially arresting Thomas.
Shay Walker makes a pretty captivating Angie Darling, too. I never usually give a second thought to the children’s mother, but this time, I worried for her intensely.
Lowell Landes’s Buzzo may be my favorite character, though, partially because the actor doesn’t even seem to be giving a performance. Watching, I came away with the strong impression, “Maybe he really is Buzzo. Maybe the rest of them are making a movie, and he’s just some guy named Buzzo who wandered onto the set.” (I know that’s not true, but his performance is so different from everyone else’s. I find it strangely captivating.)
Levy Easterly, who also had a prominent role in Beasts of the Southern Wild, gives a good performance as a character whose evolution is oddly satisfying to predict and watch unfold.
Best Scene:
My favorite is the film’s opening scene. We get dragged into the grimy world of this inescapable diner and soon learn what growing up means to this particular set of children. Right away, we forget all about London. We start thinking about Louisiana and that beautiful, mysterious train. The young actress playing Wendy here is fascinating to watch and incredibly emotive. Tommie Lynn Milazzo is extremely young, so I suppose what I’m commending is less her performance than the director’s ability to capture her, maybe even the careful way the cinematographer presents her to our eye as she stares through the barrier of the grimy window at the only way out.
Best Scene Visually:
The initial scenes of wonder as the “lost boys” race through Wendy‘s version of Neverland are exciting because the children are not the only ones who go somewhere else. The audience, up to this point entranced with all the hidden wonders of the Darlings’ home state, slowly begins to realize, “Wait a minute! This isn’t Louisiana!”
“Where are they?” I actually asked out loud. “Hawaii?!” (One cave looks almost exactly like an out-of-the-way tourist spot one of my son’s favorite YouTubers visited on his vacation.) One advantage of watching at home–I was able to look up filming locations immediately and confirm that the production did, indeed, leave Louisiana for Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, and Tulum, Mexico.
This disorienting rush of idyllic bliss is more overtly creepy than most introductions to Neverland. And it just keeps getting eerier and eerier.
Best of all, to me, is swimming with a certain special someone. Every time this happens, we seem poised to veer into horror (or possibly even sci-fi) territory.
But a close second is our strange introduction to Buzzo. The film is at its best when it’s most jarring.
Best Scene Aurally:
Peter’s insistence that Wendy fly at one late moment is my favorite part of the entire movie. Not only are the visuals excellent, and the young actors’ performances at the height of their intensity, but the music here is absolutely fantastic. I loved the score of this film.
Best Action Sequence:
Nothing beats the energy and mystery of the Darling children’s first flight with Peter on train. The Louisiana landscape itself is mystifying. Peter is perfect, the use of the train, inspired.
The Negatives:
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a far stronger film, overall. Nobody had ever told that story before, and it felt so relevant and important to see, whereas we’ve already seen hundreds of Peter Pans. (Maybe hundreds is a stretch…maybe not. There are an awful lot of Peter Pans flying around out there!)
I love the elements of and hints at horror in this film. Perhaps Wendy would even benefit from leaning into these a little more. With its accessible PG-13 rating and eerie vibe, Wendy should appeal to horror lovers in the junior high crowd, those who might not be allowed to watch R-rated movies but who love hearing the dark side of the children’s stories they grew up reading and watching. I know my daughter loves it, and I’m guessing its near darkness is the reason why.
For me, the early scenes of the film are so much stronger (and more cohesive) than what comes later. Up until Peter makes a significant underwater introduction, the film works well for me. That scene is pivotal, magical, and opens up a number of fascinating possibilities. But the second half of the film is messier and sometimes awfully self-impressed. We sense we’re watching something with such a portentous, epic message, but I didn’t feel as amazed as I could tell the movie wanted. You, on the other hand, might. This is the type of film that provokes a response more subjective than average. I thought the ending was messy, not confusing, but certainly not as neat and profound as it pretended. To completely honest, though, I had a somewhat similar reaction to Beasts of the Southern Wild as I watched it the first time.
Like Beasts, Wendy has grown on me with distance. Because of its timeless themes, eerie vibe, captivating cinematography, and mesmerizing music, it leaves a very strong impression. I’m not sure how soon I would watch it again, but I know I’ll think back on it a lot.
Overall:
Wendy is an unusual film, but if you’ve seen the director’s previous movie Beasts of the Southern Wild, then you should know what to expect. Though this doesn’t quite reach the excellence of Beasts, it does successfully transport the Peter Pan story to rural Louisiana, a change in locale which involves tweaks to the plot and themes as well. If for no other reason, see Wendy for its hypnotic cinematography and memorable score. The juvenile performances are all excellent, too. I was particularly impressed by Yashua Mack who plays Peter, and I look forward to his future work.