Sundance 2020: Wendy Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan has been adapted countless times over film and television over the last decades. When you thought there was nothing left to tell about the infamous story, here is yet another Peter Pan story though from a different perspective. For the most part, Wendy is the same story (with a few small changes) but that isn’t necessarily the best thing either. The film is still about future and one’s story and the perils of growing up. While this will surely be enough for some younger audiences (but not too young), apart from some truly beautiful cinematography and an epic score, there wasn’t that much to be had here (it seemed like the filmmakers overestimated what they had). 

Wendy may have a running time of just under 2 hours but it will definitely feel longer than that. The story sees a young girl named Wendy (France) and her two twin brothers Douglas and James (Gage and Gavin Naquin) follow an energetic little boy named Peter (Mack) to a mysterious island with the power to keep its inhabitants young as long as they believed. There were other rules but they didn’t really matter as the film favored scenes of kids purely being kids that may be fun to watch at first, however, get old fast and cause the film to drag. Since these kids are clearly not actors (it shows), the film tries to mask it with narration and its score thought that can only go so far. As the film attempts to bring the story full circle (it won’t come as a surprise to anyone), it misses the landing.

As mentioned, most of the child actors in Wendy aren’t actors and their performances reflected this but this wasn’t necessarily all their fault arguably due to the script and passive direction. Meanwhile, Mack especially showed his young age as he couldn’t quite carry the responsibility that the role of Peter Pan requires. Maybe an older actor would have fared better. On the other end of the spectrum was France as the film’s titular character. She was so impressive as the dynamic Wendy, it was a shame that the other couldn’t match her level.

At the end of the day, Wendy may hold some appeal to younger audiences but to most, it will just be another case of been there done that despite its technical prowess.

*still courtesy of Searchlight Pictures*

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.