Hook

post signature

Still looking for the Hook

Hook takes the story of Peter Pan beyond Peter as a boy living in Neverland and explores the question: What if Peter grew up? Peter Panning (Robin Williams), is driven to be successful. To be a bit cliché he loves his wife and kids but doesn't have time to make it to all of their baseball games and plays. Peter Panning has forgotten Neverland, until Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) abducts his children in the night forcing Peter to remember a lost memory. Peter, with the help of a sweet little faerie named Tinkerbell recaptures his throne as the leader of the Lost Boys and confronts his enemy.

The magic and dreamlike qualities of another world filled with adventures just a flight away from your window feeds my inner child; what doesn’t, is a seemingly good story that drags on too long. My opinion, years ago, when I saw it was much higher than it is now; it was an okay rental but definitely not one for the collection. The acting was top notch though, Hoffman played a spot on Hook; while Williams, who usually plays the one line jokester, embraced a somewhat serious role for him and it worked. Maggie Smith (a personal favorite of mine) plays Wendy (but check out towards the end who plays the young Wendy). Hook won’t short change you in the world of make believe or even some emotional scenes around embracing our youth and loved ones. It was just, I hate to say it, kind of boring at times.

Motherly Advice: Hook is a family movie, but, heads up there are some things to be aware of. I had my filters set to medium thinking that would be okay with a PG film, well for myself it would be but if I was watching with kids I would turn up language and violence filters. Although there is no violence shown, Peter’s children are kidnapped and appear in danger multiple times throughout the film. Peter falls into the water while trying to rescue his kids and struggles to get to the surface, so three mermaids in bikini tops come to his rescue to offer oxygen by putting their mouths to his, this scene is kind of weird and adds nothing to the movie. The Lost Boys are just that, BOYS, and fighting, name calling and food fights are part of never growing up. One Lost Boy is killed by a sword and another unnamed person is killed by Hook with a gun during a baseball game. Some of the Lost Boys share emotion about wishing they either had a father or a mother, those discussions set kind of a sad tone. And lastly Tinkerbell and Peter have a “moment” where Tink shares her feelings for Peter while wearing an off the shoulder gown (she wears short shorts the rest of the time) and they kiss briefly. With modifying my filters slightly I would recommend ages 9 and up.

Hannah Clearplay Happy Thought Faerie!

post signature