Peter Pan is a Real Boy in the 2003 Movie

Aren't you a little tired of movie critics who seem more interested in displaying their own erudite cleverness than in telling you about the movie? In 2003, yet another film version of Peter Pan came out, providing a field day for them. Seems they consider all that subtext about grownup feelings and father complexes to be sexual. Hello-ooo. Those folks have bought into the current Hollywood preoccupation with sex, where people rip each other's clothes off the moment they feel a twinge of attraction. This movie is about something deeper and more important. It's called love. And it was put there by the original author J.M. Barrie. It was also Mr. Barrie who fixated poor old Hook on killing and all his other nastiness.

Of all the dramatizations of Peter Pan, this treatment is closest to Mr. Barrie's original. What a concept. Visually, the whole film has the look of illustrator Maxfield Parrish, a contemporary of Mr. Barrie, right down to the florid lighting and luscious clouds. This is the Peter Pan they would have made if they could have when Barrie was alive.

The cast is dead-on perfect down to the last pirate and bank president. Imagine the ingenuity of director P.J. Hogan in casting an actual fourteen-year-old BOY named Jeremy Sumpter as the barely pre-pubescent Peter. Again, what a concept. Then he casts an incandescent thirteen-year-old, Rachel Hurd-Wood as Wendy. The three of them share credit for making all that subtext evident without overkilling a larrupin' good story.

This was also the best Tinkerbell I have ever seen. She achieves just the right balance of feminine caprice and impishness. Having no dialog forces an actor to rely much more on his other tools and Ludivine Sagnier's tool box is very well stocked. Somehow I was not surprised to learn after seeing the film that she is French.

I wish we could have seen more of Tiger Lily, her people and the mermaids but the film would have reached epic proportions if Hogan had put everything in.

Now, would I forget to mention the sublime Jason Isaacs? This chameleon has played romantic leads and towering dastards, soldiers and priests, a knight and a funny female impersonator - and currently plays Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series - all with 110% conviction. Of course, his Captain Hook is the perfect Barrie-style Hook. Of course, his Mr. Darling is absolutely ....darling. Personally, I think he's growing up to be Alan Rickman, which is a not a bad thing at all. Anybody remember Basil Rathbone?

Source for movie facts: www.imdb.com/title/tt0316396/