Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

We have been on a real roll with fantasy movies lately, enjoying The BFG, Pete’s Dragon, and the new Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. This one continues the streak. We really liked it, and I can’t understand why the reviews weren’t any better. Once more, as in the above, today’s incredible special effects were put to good use by showing us some magic we haven’t seen before instead of being squandered on that same old boring superhero and transformers crapola. The story is taken from a book which I haven’t read but which I’m pretty sure I would like, and there are two sequels. I sure wouldn’t mind if they were filmed, too.

Eva Green, an actress I’m not too familiar with, really brings Miss Peregrine to life in a delightful way. It looks like most of her previous roles have been as a femme fatale, which she says she is tired of. Her Wiki page is interesting. She lives alone, hates partying, considers herself a nerd. She is interested in taxidermy and entomology, collects skulls and insects. How delightfully weird! I love it! The other two major roles are Asa Butterfield (Hugo from Hugo, and Ender Wiggin from Ender’s Game) and Ella Purnell as Emma, a girl so light she has to wear lead galoshes to keep from floating away. They are both quite good. The climactic scene at an amusement park is really swell, unlike so many climaxes we have seen. I recommend this one highly. It’s tons of fun.