Come Away (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, November 12

PG Running Time: 93 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

An intriguing concept, a blending together of the stories of Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, will spark interest among families looking for a film to watch together.
The children in the film more than hold their own alongside a stellar cast of names like Angelina Jolie, Michael Caine, and David Oyelowo.
Come Away is a visually impressive film, directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Brenda Chapman (Brave).

NO

A family adventure, blending together two classic stories, becomes a backdrop to struggling adults battling grief, addiction, and loss. Gather ‘round everyone!
Ambitious as it is, Come Away struggles to fulfill its promise, often feeling like multiple movies, fighting themselves, while competing for attention.
The film is PG, it is a family film for sure - but deals with a fair amount of heavy subject matter, which could cause some conversations with younger viewers once the film concludes.

OUR REVIEW

A clever idea falls apart under the weight of its own ambition in Come Away, a throwback family film which brings together Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” in a story of children finding a way to help their parents grieve loss and pain.

With authentic costumes and gorgeous production design, the first live-action feature from Oscar-winning director Brenda Chapman (Brave) dresses up elegantly and contains a beautiful score by composer John Debney. Toss in a stellar cast, and some spunky young actors, and you have all the ingredients necessary for a film that should take us down a rabbit hole and off to never neverland.

They key word there is “should.” Come Away never finds a direction in its storytelling, and results in a somber, and at times quite bleak series of events and circumstances. While a lot of children’s literature is allegory for themes of isolation, loss, and the challenges of growing up, Come Away uses two beloved stories as a gateway into watching characters spiral into booze, gambling, and dysfunction.

Parents Jack and Rose Littleton (David Oyelowo, Angelina Jolie) have three children - David (Reece Yates), Peter (Jordan A. Nash), and Alice (Keira Chansa). Jack builds model ships for wealthy clients and Rose is a doting, protective mother to children with wild and expansive imaginations. An overbearing aunt (Anna Chancellor) helicopters over the family. Based on the premise, Peter (as in Pan) and Alice (as in Wonderland) are siblings here; as Marissa Kate Goodhill’s screenplay brings them together under the same roof. Elements of the iconic children’s story flit in and out of the early scenes and there’s a novelty to all of this which is initially interesting and unique.

When tragedy hits the Littleton family, they are changed forever. Tender moments, like those where Rose tells Alice about a magical bell that makes a “tink” cease to exist. Rose pushes away her children and Jack’s business prospects turn sour. As a result, he scrambles together what money the family has and turns to gambling, while Rose, under the stress and strain she is feeling from recent events, turns to the bottle and drinks her special "potion."

This leaves Peter and Alice to consume themselves with fantasy. In the film’s second half, Goodhill begins remixing the two source stories more and more frequently. The child actors are largely terrific as they straddle between two worlds - one of sad reality and another full of unbridled adventure.

Chapman struggles to make this all work in a cohesive manner. The ideas become increasingly forced and as the children dive into the adventure, again, the reality awaiting them is increasingly dire and troubling. Oyelowo and Jolie do what they can, but as they spiral into sadness, their characters become surprisingly one-dimensional. Since we have familiarity with the White Rabbit for example, or The Lost Boys, both of which enter into the fray - we find ourselves curious how much of these stories will make it into the film and how much of what we anticipate will simply be cast aside.

In actuality, Come Away should have us invested in both parallel stories. The best children's stories take elements of reality and fantasy and use them to complement one another. As Peter and Alice avoid their parents, and escape into worlds which may or may not exist in reality, Chapman has crafted a film that is beautiful to watch, aesthetically speaking, but digs in deep on parental grief and the difficulties of negotiating pain and loss.

Truly, it becomes no surprise that Peter and Alice travel the paths they travel, when the reality is so bleak and the fantasy so inviting. Which begs the question: What message is Come Away actually sending?

CAST & CREW

Starring: David Oyelowo, Angelina Jolie, Keira Chansa, Jordan A. Nash, Anna Chancellor, Clarke Peters, Michael Caine, David Gyasi, Derek Jacobi, Ned Dennehy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Director: Brenda Chapman
Written by: Marissa Kate Goodhill
Based on the novels “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Relativity Media

An intriguing concept, a blending together of the stories of Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, will spark interest among families looking for a film to watch together.

The children in the film more than hold their own alongside a stellar cast of names like Angelina Jolie, Michael Caine, and David Oyelowo.

Come Away is a visually impressive film, directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Brenda Chapman (Brave).

A family adventure, blending together two classic stories, becomes a backdrop to struggling adults battling grief, addiction, and loss. Gather ‘round everyone!

Ambitious as it is, Come Away struggles to fulfill its promise, often feeling like multiple movies, fighting themselves, while competing for attention.

The film is PG, it is a family film for sure - but deals with a fair amount of heavy subject matter, which could cause some conversations with younger viewers once the film concludes.