E-Mail This Article to a Friend PETER PAN

P.J. Hogan’s adaptation of the J.M. Barrie classic is a far cry from the holiday season’s other major children’s-film release, Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat. This sweet, sentimental trifle harks back to a gentler time, albeit one with pirates. Played with charming insouciance by Jeremy Sumpter, Peter is still the eternal boy out only for a good time, but Hogan has tinged his revelry with a little melancholy, and the film focuses on the difficulty of growing up and the decisions that go along with young adulthood. Hogan plays up the relationship between Peter and Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood), so that their inevitable goodbye is all the more poignant. But this is no teeny-bopper romance. The Darling children are running away from Victorian England, and even the Lost Boys act like good little kids — they’re like something out of Dickens, minus the petty crime. Ludivine Sagnier is a jealous, fiery Tinker Bell; Jason Isaacs plays both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook. Pirates, mermaids, and Indians might seem like kid stuff, but Hogan makes his characters real people. (112 minutes)