THE SILVEY LINING: A film for the peculiar and non-peculiar alike

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Curtis Silvey is a junior photojournalism major and writes "The Silvey Lining" for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Curtis at clsilvey@bsu.edu. 

Curtis Silvey

Tim Burton has a very distinctive directing style, which is why he’s one of my favorite directors and why this movie doesn’t disappoint. "Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" is a story about Jacob, “Jake,”  Portman, a boy in the present who finds out the bedtime stories his grandpa used to tell him growing up weren’t stories after all.

The stories were about a special orphanage in Wales that Jake’s grandpa, Abraham, visited during the late 1930s – early 1940s that housed this group of unique children, all with special abilities much like your stereotypical superheroes. After an accident resulting in Abraham’s death, Jake fulfills his grandpa’s last dying wish and goes to Wales to visit the orphanage. Once Jake finds the old, abandoned orphanage and ends up spotting some of the orphans from the stories, he’s then brought to a special location by the orphans which sends them back to Sept. 3, 1940.

Jack eventually meets Miss Peregrine and the rest of the orphans that live in this time loop. Eventually, though, trouble arises and pits Jake against the monsters that were also in his grandpa’s stories, but not without the help of his new friends.

"Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" stars Asa Butterfield as Jake, Eva Green as Miss Peregrine, and Samuel L. Jackson as the main antagonist, named Barron. There are some other famous faces also involved like Allison Janney, Chris O’Dowd and Terence Stamp. The majority of the children that play the orphans haven’t had many other movie roles before. Though a few, like Ella Purnell who plays Emma Bloom, have been a part of other big movies. In Purnell’s case, she has been involved with Universal’s "Kick-Ass 2," Disney’s live-action "Maleficent," and Warner Bros. "The Legend of Tarzan," which just came out this past summer.

"Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children" is a charming story that has the whimsical touch of Tim Burton scattered throughout. A great example is how Burton sets the beginning of the movie with this sense of normality, having it be mostly cloudy and dark while Jake is in the real world, but bright, sunny and in a “dream-like” state while in 1940. Though it’s rated PG-13 and labeled a fantasy/adventure/drama, there are a few cheesy moments that make it seem more like a kid’s movie. That said, it’s still a film that even the most non-peculiar Tim Burton fans of any age will enjoy from beginning to end.

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