Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Movie Review

By: Lynn Barker

In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, when 16-year-old Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield) learns that the many wild stories of monsters and “gifted” people from his grandpa’s past are true, he is swept up into an adventure involving time loops and “peculiar” children all of whom have magical talents. These benevolent kids need protecting and Jake wonders how he can help. After all, he isn’t “peculiar”. He’s just a normal human…..isn’t he?

Jake first meets some of the PeculiarsCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Creepy Bedtime Stories

Since Jake Portman was a toddler he was mesmerized by his grandpa Abe (Terrence Stamp)’s fantasy stories of growing up during World War II on an island where there was a magical children’s home headed up by Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and peopled by kids and teens with amazing supernatural abilities. Now that he’s 16, Jake starts to question just how true grandpa’s tales were. Were the battles with monsters really just the evil Nazi’s of the time? Jake’s visits to a psychiatrist (Allison Janney) seem to convince him of this new “truth”.

Miss Peregrine protects the childrenCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Goodbye Grandpa

When Jake sees his grandfather killed by a weird, tall, blind and very frightening creature that only he can see, he decides that he must investigate the island and the school for his own sanity and to see if grandpa was just crazy or not. Jake travels with his doubting dad to Wales looking for Miss Peregrine and her weird school.

Jake (left) must protect the PeculiarsCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Meet the Peculiars

Jake goes to the “home” only to find it destroyed by a bomb during World War 2 but, returning later on, he starts to see several occupants and they match old pictures of the peculiar kids who lived there. Are they ghosts? Going outside he sees that the mansion is restored. He learns that they aren’t dead. Jake has entered their “time loop” where it is always the day the bomb fell and Miss Peregrine always “re-sets” the same day before it falls. Thus, neither she nor the kids ever really age.

Jake struggles to ground EmmaCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

The Gang

There is an invisible boy, a boy who can make people move as he likes, a boy with bees living inside him, a girl with teeth in the back of her head, a firestarter girl, a super-strong girl, a girl who can make plants grow into giant ones, mysterious twins and more but Jake is attracted to Emma (Ella Purnell) a gorgeous teen girl who can defy gravity and control air.

The gang gathers for movie nightCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

The Truth

Jake learns that his grandfather visited them and other peculiar kids in other time loops throughout his life. He was doing so as their protector because only he could actually see their enemies headed by power-hungry shape-shifter Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) who leads a group of malformed eyeless humans known as the Wights who are determined to live forever by consuming the eyeballs of Peculiars! Their monstrous henchmen are called Hollowgasts and that is what Jake saw kill his grandpa. In fact, Jake is also a Peculiar and like grandpa Abe before him, is the only one who can see them.

Miss Peregrine is an Ymbryne, a being who can change into a bird and actually control time and form the protective time loops.

Samuel L. Jackson as the creepy BarronCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Discovered and Danger

The Peculiar group learns from Miss Avocet (Judi Dench) that Mr. Barron, his followers and their awful hollowgasts have discovered where they are all hiding and are coming to get them.  Jake has to decide whether he will return home to live a “normal” life or stay and take over from his grandpa as protector of these unusual beings.

Miss Avocet (Judi Dench)Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Wrapping Up

Tim Burton’s unique “stamp” is all over this film. There are creatures and images reminiscent of his work in Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands or even The Nightmare Before Christmas and that makes for a very visually fantastic and fascinating time at the movies. The story is a little bit hard to follow occasionally unless you have read the best-selling novel upon which it is based, but everyone can “get” the basic, magical goings-on. However the film is quite long and some younger tweens might get a bit bored between all the cool things to watch.

Jake and Emma share an attraction

Yes, the plot once again features a teen who is much more than even he realizes and a school/home for supernatural kids much like the young X-Men but there are enough unique touches to rivet your eyes to the screen.  Acting is top notch from the amazing Eva Green as the loving if very quirky Miss Peregrine to Asa Butterfield as a teen discovering and deciding whether or not to pursue his destiny to the almost angelic Ella Purnell as Emma Bloom who is weightless and can control air. Just for the movie’s pure imagination and visual effects eye-candy we will go four stars.  

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Movie Rating:

The posterCourtesy of 20th Century Fox

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is in theaters now!

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