Reviewer: Federica Roberti
Inspired by the homonymous best seller written by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a fantastic and slightly grim story that only Tim Burton could have made into the perfect comic, dark and quite gothic movie.
The plot in the movie is more linear than the one in the book.
Thanks to a childhood filled up with fantastic but real bed time stories about his grandfather’s past, Jake doesn’t shy away from believing in monsters and special children. After loosing his grandpa Abraham in a mysterious accident, he will be left with the task to find Miss Peregrine and her orphan children in a remote island in Welsh.
Once there, Jake doesn’t expect to experience one of the greatest adventures of his life and to learn that all the fairy tales told by his grandfather were actually true. Along with the fascinating and wise Miss Peregrine and her orphan peculiar children, Jake will discover a whole new world of fantastic abilities and dangerous monsters and he will have to take his grandfather’s place and protect his “chosen” family.
For a story like that, the only perfect director capable of creating this kind of magical world is Tim Burton. Throughout the film, his signature technique doesn’t emerge quite often, but when it does, it’s the perfect mixture of gothic, splatter and scary. In fact, while for most of the movie the atmosphere is quite unusual for a Tim Burton movie, there are some parts, as well as some characters, that are straight out of his weird and grim mind and turn the film quite scary for children, and some adults as well.
Moreover, what is astonishing and ever present in this production, as well as in some of his other films, is the peculiar use or colours to distinguish the different realities in the story. As he had already done in Big Fish or Big Eyes, the reality in which everything is ordinary has a specific color palette that makes it almost boring. Everything is dull, gray is the predominant colour and the atmosphere is opaque and monochromatic. However, when the reality becomes extraordinary and everyone who lives in it has some sort of connection with the fantastic and peculiar, the whole world comes to life in an explosion of colours and light. Everything becomes warmer and there is a special glow that enhances the fairy like quality of the setting. However, like everything else, even in a fantasy world, there are awful things ready to attack and Miss Peregrine’s happy loop can become quite the dark place haunted by evil and darkness.
The cast ensemble of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children did an amazing job in working together to bring to life these fantastic and special characters. Eva Green once again shows what an eclectic and talented actress she is. She is capable of showing Miss Peregrine’s wit, sense of duty, loyalty 
and courage just with a glance. Her relationship with each peculiar child is unique according to the characters, but the underline devotion she has for them is highlighted in every scene by her performance.
Samuel L. Jackson embodied the bad guy in the story perfectly. He adds to his character a pungent sense of humor that made him terrifying, but at the same time entertaining and hilarious.
All the children in the film interacted together effortlessly, especially Asa Butterfield and Ella Purnell, showcasing the beautiful bond among each other and their strong loyalty to Miss Peregrine and one another.
All in all, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is an extremely entertaining movie that successfully thrives by using the perfect balance between comedy, fantasy and gloomy aspects that only Tim Burton knows how to master. And by telling the fantastic story of these peculiar children, it also wants to teach a valuable lesson on how important friendship, loyalty and inclusion are in everyone’s life.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is out in UK cinemas today!
