Wendy (2020) Review!!

Synopsis – Lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued, Wendy must fight to save her family, her freedom, and the joyous spirit of youth from the deadly peril of growing up.

My Take – Personally, I understand the recurring appeal to adapt writer J.M. Barre‘s 1902 work, The Little White Bird, after all who doesn’t want to experience a magical getaway from the staid reality to a world of adventure filled with excitement and danger?

While the story has been a much-revisited touch point for Hollywood almost since the start, beginning with the silent version released by Paramount Pictures in 1924, and followed by notable films like Hook (1991), Peter Pan (2003), Finding Neverland (2004), Pan (2015) and even went on to evolve as gritty horror in the form 1987’s Lost Boys.

But 1953’s animated Disney film classic, which has expanded into a massive franchise of its own over the past decades, till date remains the most celebrated adaption, with generations still recognizing and adoring the mischievous yet innocent little boy blessed with eternal youth.

However, there was a certain excitement for this particular adaption as it marked the much awaited sophomore turn for filmmaker Benh Zeitlin, whose previous film, 2012’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, had ended up nabbing Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actress for its 9-year-old star Quvenzhané Wallis. But what especially separates this re-imagining for previous works is that it turns the tables on the eternal-youth tale by putting the focus squarely on Wendy, instead of Peter.

Though it is still loosely adapting the original novel, director Zeitlin, who co-wrote the screenplay with his sister Eliza Zeitlin, aggressively revamps the setting by bringing in rumbling train cars and volcanic oceans into the mix, all in order to bring his own vision of the fable to the big screen, by making it to more of a coming-of-age story filled with naturalism and expressionist fantasy.

And like his earlier film, this one too features a cast of nonprofessional actors, almost all of them children, and has an effort that is apparent in every frame, but unfortunately, while dabbling in creative imagery, it is also quite apparent that director Zeitlin clearly lost control of the narrative, which I would generously describe as vague.

While the film does have its touching moments, and is heaped high with ideas about the magic of stories and the importance of recapturing your sense of wonder, but they don’t really add up to much in the end, making it unwatchable exhausting especially considering its almost-two-hour running time.

The story follows Wendy (Devin France), a 9 year old, who along with her twin brothers James and Douglas (Gavin and Gage Naquin) help their hard-working mother Angela (Shay Walker), run a small town greasy spoon diner nestled along railroad tracks. While Wendy dreams of having her own set of adventures, she is lead to belief her life in the poverty of the Louisiana bayou is definitely her destiny.

That is until adventure comes calling when she and her brothers spots an impish child named Peter (Yashua Mack) wearing a tattered school jacket, giggling and running along the top of the cars, inviting them to join in. Curious about where it might lead to the three leap from the window and join Peter. Before long, they’re on a mysterious island where active volcanoes roar at every turn, and is mainly populated with kids who run and jump and play all day, without any form of adult supervision.

However, the biggest surprise comes with the appearance of Thomas (Krzysztof Meyn), who despite disappearing from the diner years ago hasn’t aged a day.

That’s about all the plot the film has to offer. The first 45 minutes, from the ambience of the train-stop diner where their mom works and where everybody knows everybody to the fantasy trip by train and boat to the island with an active volcano and children who have never grown up, is intriguing. There is also some touching cinematic poetry on the subjects of restless youth, dreams of the future, the stories of our lives and a mother’s love. But what follows is a disappointing story that never grows organically into something substantive.

What started as an adventure tale of children seeing their world turned upside down becomes a case of “been there, done that” familiarity in its plot and in a way that doesn’t fit well with the J.M. Barrie concept. The weirdest element here is the folly of aging is exemplified by a colony of elderly former lost boys and girls, who are relegated to a miserable tent city on a rocky shore of the island. They seem to age directly from children into silver-haired seniority the minute they stop believing in Peter’s magic.

These bleak and dispirited oldsters resent the children as much as the kids condemn them for the crime of growing up. It’s shown as the eternal conflict between sedate age and reckless youth, which is given an environmental edge when the grown-ups’ clueless pursuit of their own agenda endangers the Mother.

But mostly, the film consists of youngsters running around dramatic landscapes, yelling and laughing while the world around them starts to crumble. The dialogue is largely screamed, often to no one in particular, because the details don’t really matter. It’s invigorating at moments, but exhausting for 112 minutes.

In many ways, this is the film’s central conceit: providing gritty, logical explanations for traditionally magical elements. This would be a unique take, but magic still surfaces on the island, so we’re not quite sure of the aim. Is it trying to say the Peter Pan legend became an overblown myth from real events? Or is it trying to say that magic actually exists? Yes, a version of the Peter Pan’ arch nemesis, Captain Hook, eventually enters the scene, and the aquatic goddess Mother fills the fairy like role occupied by Tinker Bell in the original work.

Visually, the forcefulness of director Zeitlin’s world building is stunning, and the film, shot in landscapes, is miraculous to look at. But the director can’t back up the aesthetics with any granular detail. In spite, or perhaps because, of their famous origins, Wendy, Peter, and the rest of the Lost Boys never feel like anything more than childlike archetypes, making their adventures strangely dull. It’s all backed by the music of composer Dan Romer, whose trumpet score for ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ remains one of the most memorable scores of the 21st century. Here, we get similar horns that suggest a magic that we wish existed more in the script itself.

Nevertheless, the children’s performances are strong. Devin France, has genuine star potential, and plays her character, which shifts from innocent to fiery, superbly. Real-life siblings Gage and Gavin Naquin are equally great. However, real show stealer is Yashua Mack as Peter, who is nothing like the Peter Pan we have become accustomed to see, but instead brings in a rough magnetism to the screen which makes his whole character believable. In supporting roles, Lowell Landes, Kevin Pugh, Shay Walker, Ahmad Cage, Krzysztof Meyn, and Romyri Ross are also good. On the whole, ‘Wendy’ is a visually stunning adventure which fails to reinvigorate its overused and familiar tale.