Movie Review: 'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children'

If you’re a fan of the unusual and enjoy an adventure where oddity and creepiness infuse every scene, then “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” which shapes up to be a successful cross between the Addam’s Family and Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, should be at the top of your must-see-and-own movie list.

Based on the New York Times bestseller with the same title from author Ransom Riggs, we discover this weird and intriguing world through the eyes of Jake Portman (portrayed by Asa Butterfield). For years his grandfather, and World War II survivor, Abe Portman (Terence Stamp) has shared unbelievable stories of an orphanage on a remote Welsh island where “peculiar” residents like girls that float and invisible boys were some of his closest friends.

With the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder of his grandfather, Jake finds himself bound for Wales to learn more about the orphanage. Once there the adventure really takes flight! He is transported to a dark day in 1943 where the Germans are just about to bomb the orphanage, but the tragedy is indefinitely postponed when Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) uses her peculiar gift of trapping time in a 24-hour Groundhog Day-like loop, to literally save the day.

Jake soon finds out that things are more dire than they all first believed as they must also battle invisible eye-ball eating Hallowgasts and Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) a powerful, shape-shifter hunting Peculiars in his quest to achieve immortality.

Considered director Tim Burton’s (Maleficent, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) best film in years, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a dark and well-paced fantasy thrill-ride that will connect with anyone who believes in the unbelievable and particularly on a deeper level with those that have felt alone, different or unusual. Tim Burton brings the book to life and creates an unforgettable visual aura that feels authentic and allows you to enjoy the adventure.

Here’s The Rundown:

Imaginative Creepiness: Miss Peregrine’s pushes our imagination to accept oddities of truly unusual and dark origins: a shape-shifting goon, eye-gobbling creatures, a little girl with giant gnashing teeth behind her head, battling skeletons, masked twins, a bee-spewing boy and more. Yup, that’s a lot of creepiness right there!

Adventure: Truly immerse yourself in this flick and you’ll get to travel through time, explore a Welsh island, battle a Hollowgast, meet a guardian who can control time, all while discovering that only your peculiarity can save the people you’ve grown to care for.

Relationships: This is not your typical YA romance. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely the awkward boy-falls-for-blonde-beauty scenario, but we also get to delve into deeper relationships of friendship, family, fitting-in and belonging.

BONUS: Faze had a chance to connect with costume designer extraordinaire and 3-time Oscar winner, Colleen Atwood to discuss her work on the film.

Faze: Which character was your favourite to design, and why?
COLLEEN: Eva Green was fun to design in the sense of thinking of her ability to become a bird. I wanted something that felt slightly from an earlier time, so I used the Victorian shaped waist, but went to the 40s and lightly bird in the shoulder which was slightly pointy like the top of a bird wing, with a fluttery hem and sleeve ends for movement.

Faze: How much prep time did you have before shooting began?
COLLEEN: About 3 1/2 months, which was a little short for this kind of manufactured movie.

Faze: How many people were on the “design/wardrobe” team?
COLLEEN: My entire team was about 10 in prep, then when we started shooting went to about 20 depending on what scenes we were doing.

Faze: Is there anything you would change in hindsight?
COLLEEN: Hmm, probably if I saw the movie a couple more times…there’s always little tweaks.

Faze: What was the biggest challenge for you on this project?
COLLEEN: Lots of growth spurts with the children! We were constantly doing more things for them/especially shoes!

Faze: Any extra-special details we should look out for when watching the movie?
COLLEEN: Eva has some metallic embroidery feathers in the shoulder pleats of her costumes, which move by quickly.

Faze: Your favourite scene in the movie?
CA: I think the opening scene with Jake meeting the peculiars and Miss Peregrine is really special and such a Tim Burton sequence!