Wendy Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Peter Pan has long been shaping how people tell stories about childhood and growing up. It's been adapted multiple times and retold even more. The latest creator to take on this task is the Academy Award-nominated Benh Zeitlin who was last seen and heard of in 2012 with his critically acclaimed debut Beasts of the Southern Wild. Since then he's been working on Wendy, his contemporary reimagining of Peter Pan that despite the change in name, time period, and location feels very much the same as what we've seen before. Just like Beasts of the Southern Wild, Wendy begins in a Southern landscape seemingly cut off from the rest of society. The titular heroine lives with her family at their trainside diner. Her three brothers aren't excited about the prospect of spending their lives stuck in the grimy but friendly food establishment and we watch as Wendy wanders around in her diaper charming the patrons. This opening not only sets up the visual tone for the film -- "grounded and real" -- to the point of blandness but also introduces us to the more magical elements of the film. We watch out of the window with Wendy as her eldest brother absconds on a passing train after being encouraged by a figure shrouded in red. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://ift.tt/39652Dw] Years later we find Wendy (Devin France), her mother (Shay Walker), and two remaining brothers (Gage and Gavin Naquin) still living in the diner where the youngest daughter dreams of the "ghost train" that took her brother away and her twin siblings embrace their muddy life in New Orleans. It's a slow-burn beginning that highlights the watchability of the young cast as the trio do nothing more than listlessly wander around the diner and their house above it. The ever-present lights and noise of the trains play as an ominous hint of what's to come as Wendy waits for the return of the train and the figure who spirited her brother away. That strange figure is, of course, Peter, played here by Yashua Mack who is inarguably the star of the film. The fact that Peter is the best thing about a film called Wendy is just the beginning of where this adaptation's problems begin. Although Mack is brilliant, the script -- by Zeitlan and his sister Eliza -- and characterization of Peter muddies the waters with a choice to focus on the more Machiavellian and malicious aspects of the character, making his anti-heroic and sometimes villainous take on the character far more interesting than the allegedly "good" leads, Wendy in particular. Mack's Peter is a firebrand who is brilliant, charming, and dangerous, young, old, and ageless all at the same time. When he shows up on the roof of the train passing the bedroom window of the Darling children you never question whether or not they'll follow him, which is after all the power of Peter Pan. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-upcoming-disney-live-action-remake&captions=true"] Ironically, as Peter is the best thing about it, the film loses its way once he and the children hit Neverland. Despite the fact that their arrival begins by hinting at an intriguing representation of magical realism and what it can be on the big screen, Zeitlin seems to get lost in his own vision, with plenty of pretty B-roll and stunning locations but not much narrative and not enough strength of conviction to work without one. There maybe exists a version of Wendy that was truly committed to the atmospheric fairytale that it wanted to be, and potentially that hypothetical film was better. But once the siblings and the children that they meet are left to roam free on the isle of lost dreams, Wendy really begins to drag. There are moments of magic as the young cast wander around Neverland and most are connected to the magic that seemingly keeps them young. There's beautiful creature work which leads to a few truly stunning sequences, but Zeitlin is more interested in "the real" which means the magic of the film is often pushed aside in favor of something more grim and bland. Wendy is a movie that shouldn't feel like it needs an explanation but the interior logic of the island never works, which is inherently tied to the fact that the Zeitlan's message is unclear. Is it terrible to grow up? Or is it a great adventure? Are the children the future and the elderly a hazard to it? Or are the young trapped in their own nostalgia when they should want to grow up? These questions don't feel like a purposeful ambiguity but more like unfinished thoughts that lead the audience to nowhere but confusion and potentially nausea for those who don't have a taste for the saccharine and heavy-handed analogs the Zeitlins try to force into the final act.

from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3acIvVw
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