P.J. Hogan's live-action adaptation of J.M. Barrie's classic fairy tale Peter Pan opened in the United States last Christmas season on nearly 3,000 screens. Normally, when a film debuts in that many venues on that particular holiday, it means the distributor is confident it will attract tens of thousands of children and hundreds of conscientious Academy voters. As often as not, though, movies that open wide for Christmas get irretrievably lost in the annual storm of holiday movies, and fail both at the box office and on the path to Oscar.
In addition to the flicks released between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2003, Peter Pan was pitted against Cold Mountain, Paycheck, Cheaper by the Dozen and limited releases of Big Fish, The Young Black Stallion and The Company.
Considering their picture's most recognizable actor was Lynn Redgrave, Peter Pan's backers should be pleased with domestic receipts of almost $50 million, or half of its production budget. Neither did Universal go overboard on marketing costs. How could it, considering the talent available for talk shows and magazine covers? Distributors already appeared to be anticipating a more productive afterlife in the Never Never Land of DVD, which is exactly what this ambitious adaptation deserves.
The screenplay, crafted by Hogan (Muriel's Wedding, Unconditional Love) and Michael Goldenberg (Bed of Roses), adhered closer to Barrie's play and his later additions than a century's worth of previous film and stage versions. Hogan retrieved Barrie's darker and scarier impulses, and while maintaining a PG rating, found intriguing ways to remind audiences that Peter Pan, the young Darlings, and the Lost Boys were experiencing the very things that have confounded pre- and postpubescent children for centuries. He didn't, however, beat audiences over the head with subtext.
Like most other $100 million projects these days, Peter Pan overflows with wondrous visual effects, lavish Victorian sets and costumes, and terrific music. The bonus material on the DVD is family friendly and plentiful, as well.
Lost Duvall gem resurfaces
Few American actors have made as many interesting choices throughout the course of a 40-year career than Robert Duvall. Known best for his performances in the first two chapters of The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Days of Thunder, Lonesome Dove, and most recently, Open Range, it was in such intimate projects as The Apostle, Tender Mercies and Assassination Tango that he demonstrated his greatest range. Adapted by Horton Foote, from a William Faulkner story, Tomorrow should have been released around the same time as The Godfather, but it went undistributed for years. Set in the early 1900s, the stark, rural drama follows a Mississippi cotton farmer who leaves his father's farm to work as the watchman of a dormant sawmill. The character could have been related to any one of a dozen other dirt-poor Southerners portrayed by Duvall, including "Boo" Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, also scripted by Foote. His repertoire should be considered essential viewing for any aspiring actor.
Degas on disc
Fine-art lovers will want to find Great Performances: Degas and the Dance, which this March was awarded a prestigious Peabody Award. Narrated by Frank Langella, the documentary details the French impressionist's fascination with dancers and ballet students in 19th-century Paris, and examines how his beloved series of dance paintings and sculptures have stood the test of time. The package arrives with bonus features not included in the PBS special, which aired in January.
Sondheim's screenplay
Multiple Tony Award-winner Stephen Sondheim, whose music has been featured in dozens of movies and TV specials, as well as on Broadway, wrote only one screenplay (with actor Anthony Perkins) that managed to see the light of day in Hollywood. Newly released on DVD, The Last of Sheila is a campy, comic whodunit populated by many of the biggest stars in Hollywood, circa 1973. Delightfully bitchy, it was set on a yacht cruising the Mediterranean Sea for clues to an elaborate parlor game. Warner Bros. brought out the DVD with the theatrical version of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Cruise's koan
When The Last Samurai was released in December, just in time for awards season, it had all the earmarks of the "sweeping epic adventure" Hollywood has done better than anyone, with the exception of Japan's Akira Kurosawa, since D.W. Griffith stunned the world with The Birth of a Nation. Tom Cruise plays a drunk Civil War hero sent to feudal Japan to help develop a modern army. Instead, he joins forces with the endangered warrior species, the samurai, and helps lead them against an imperial force newly armed with weapons of mass destruction provided by the U.S. Almost everything about The Last Samurai feels phony, but in that magical way Hollywood has been fooling audiences for more than 100 years.