HOOK

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: crude humor, sensuality, violence

Rated:

What of Peter Pan had returned to the world of men and grew up under Granny Wendy's tutelage, married, and had children? This film dares to ask that question and many more as it plunges into the legend of Peter Pan with reckless abandon. It has just enough charm... and hilarity... to pull it off, although older viewers will find it a predictable and sometimes corny extension of the classic.

Peter Banning (Robin Williams) is a paranoid workaholic who doesn't have time for his kids. So desperate to "make the deal," he sends one of his fellow workers to video tape his son's baseball game instead of going. Not a true family man, he'd rather talk on the phone than read a book to his daughter. His wife's had it up to here with his attitude and his son Jack is furious with him. It doesn't help that the family must fly to London for the opening of Granny Wendy's children's hospital wing, nor that the aging old woman seems to be bordering on insanity, claiming to be "The Wendy" of the children's fairy tale. Brushing it off as nonsense, Peter and his wife take Wendy (Maggie Smith) out for the evening for the unveiling and return to find the house in shambles, the children gone, and a sinister note from someone who calls himself "Hook."

When the police offer little hope in a lead, Peter is at his wit's end. "Don't you know who you are, Peter?" Wendy asks him eerily, "don't you remember?" Then when a "firefly from hell" invades his room and turns out to be Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), Peter is convinced he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  When he wakes up, he finds himself in another world filled with pirates, little people and fruits for the imagination. And worst of all, the head honcho has his kids! Hook is appalled at what Peter has become and would kill him on the spot but Tinkerbelle convinces him to give her three days to turn this "overweight and pathetic former-lost-boy" into the Pan he once was. Only one problem. The Lost Boys don't give him the most cheering of welcomes... and his son is fast falling under the charms of the seemingly-persuasive Hook.

Spielberg really piled it on for this one. Neverland is at its most magical, the pirates at their most gritty, and a cast of shockingly familiar faces will have you laughing the night away. Unfortunately, this "children's tale" isn't as childish as anticipated and deals with much more adult issues... such as family, friendship, believing in yourself, and wagering against the odds. The film has some gleaming moments but also some rocky ones. Mild language spatters the dialogue and a few innuendos are thrown in for laughs, as well as some crude humor (mostly name-calling). The most worrisome factor is though Peter is married, he allows himself to be kissed by three mermaids and Tinkerbelle. It's not a big problem but a smudge of dirt on an otherwise entertaining production. If you're over fifteen, the film will swiftly loose its charm but for kids... and those young at heart... this one's a winner.