Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Adapting Ransom Riggs's creepy 2011 novel would seem like a perfect fit for the macabre imagination of filmmaker Tim Burton. When shy, teenage Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield) is summoned to his beloved grandfather's home in suburban Florida, he discovers that the old man is dying, the victim of nefarious thugs. But not really: as grandfather Abraham (Terence Stamp) explains, it's all connected to the bedtime stories Jake has heard over the years about leaving Poland just before WWII, along with creepy vintage photographs of a bizarre orphanage on a small British island off the coast of Wales. With the help of a grief counselor (Allison Janney), Jack convinces his parents (Chris O'Dowd, Kim Dickens) to let him visit grandfather's mysterious island refuge. The fun begins when Jack time-travels back to Sept. 3, 1943, to find vampy, pipe-smoking Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) tenaciously guarding her fascinating flock of mutants, including weightless Emma (Ella Purnell), who wears lead shoes so she doesn't float away; Olive (Lauren McCrostie), whose fingers ignite fires; and Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), who animates objects to fight each other. They are living in a continual 24-hour Loop that is set just prior to a Nazi bombardment. But ghoulish invisible monsters called “Hollows,” led by Barron (Samuel L. Jackson), are determined to acquire that Loop. While initially intriguing, this strangely spooky and stylish film ultimately disappoints on a narrative level. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Map of Days” (18 min.) and “The Peculiar Story” (13 min.), the music video “Wish That You Were Here” by Florence + The Machine, a gallery of photos and sketches by director Tim Burton, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is “The Peculiars” making-of documentary (65 min.), a segment on “Hollows and Ex-Hollows” (10 min.), and bonus DVD and digital copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an unremarkable adaptation.] (S. Granger)