Director Tim Burton's adaptation of Ransom Riggs' time-travelling, gothic novel about children with peculiar abilities is filled with immaculate costumes, imaginative monsters and an overall attention to detail that you don't get at the movies every day.
It's what you expect from the director of Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands - and if you're familiar with the novel you'll understand how well the director and this story are suited.
It does take a little while to get cranking - largely because the story begins in a supermarket in present-day suburban Florida; not Burton's natural homeground. It's here we meet Jake (Butterfield), a nerdy, nice boy with two uninterested parents (Chris O'Dowd and Kim Dickens), and an imaginative grandfather (Terence Stamp), who dies in mysterious circumstances.
It's Jake who finds his dying grandfather; an experience which leaves him with nightmares and in need of therapy. It's at this point you start noticing the interesting casting. Allison Janney is perfect as Jake's therapist and you immediate want to book in for your own session, but it's awkward watching O'Dowd in a selfish, aloof role. He's great as a father apathetic about parenting, but it seems a waste not to give him more than a single funny line.
For a "family fantasy" Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is light on humour; even the quirky elements (the children's incredibly strange gifts for instance) are given weight. It's nice to see a story about being different taken seriously; but at more than two hours and with some complex time-travel to get your head around, a few more laughs wouldn't have hurt.
