211. The Lost Girls; movie review

 

THE LOST GIRLS

Cert 15

100 mins

BBFC advice: Contains sexual threat

I loved Peter Pan, his adventures in Neverland and his battles with Captain Hook.

However, I have no idea how such a wonderful, innocent tale of derring-do has been followed by a sequel as dark and painful as The Lost Girls.

In my eyes, this is a meandering pile of misery but I am neither a mother nor a daughter so perhaps I am the wrong person to be giving a verdict.

The Lost Girls is the baby of Livia De Paolis who wrote, produced and directed it. She also plays the lead role of third generation Wendy Darling.

It gives me no pleasure to says that it is a meandering mess and its acting is stilted and desperately unconvincing.

Casting is also questionable. De Paolis's Wendy character has an unexplained foreign accent - and yet her mother (Joely Richardson) is cut-glass English and father (Julian Ovenden) is American. Regardless, I felt no connection.

The premise is that the third generation Darling is told by her grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) that when she is 13 years old, she will meet a boy who will sweep her off her feet.

Of course, the lad in question is Peter Pan (Louis Partridge) who, sure enough, makes a dashing entrance and vows to return.

But he doesn't - and, as she waits, Wendy frets more and more about the boy who could fly and her worrying begins to seriously derail her.

Things become worse when he flits in and out of her life while she attempts to have a relationship with another man and even raises a daughter (Ella-Rae Smith).

By the way the latter is meant to be 13 but is played by an actress who is obviously in her 20s.

Anyway, Wendy descends into what appears to be a mental health hell because of her adoration for selfish Peter who appears only when it takes his fancy.

Meanwhile, Hook (Iain Glen) is not a ship's captain but a strange old pervert who has been trying to seduce Wendy since her teens.

It all adds up to a bewildering film whose point completely eluded me.

I wish movie-makers would just leave classics alone rather than risk turning a silk purse into a sow's ear/

Reasons to watch: If you are a Peter Pan addict

Reasons to avoid: Meandering and badly acted

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 2.5/10

Did you know? J.M.Barrie took inspiration for the story of Peter Pan from his time at the Nottingham Daily Journal and a local street urchin walking along Clifton Grove in the city. He also based Nerverland on the city's Arboretum. A plaque in his honour is on Pelham Street on the site of the  former Nottingham Daily Journal offices.

The final word. Livia De Paolis: 'We can all identify with trauma and Peter Pan in the movie becomes sort of something that makes you run away from the memory. Even in the original book, the kids go to Neverland, and they start forgetting about their mothers… " Movie Web

Share this post