• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Keira Chansa, David Oyelowo, Reece Yates and Jordan A. Nash star in a scene from the movie "Come Away." The Motion Picture Association rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children. (CNS photo/Alex Bailey, Maginot Line via Relativity Media)

Movie Review: ‘Come Away’

November 19, 2020
By Joseph McAleer
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Movie & Television Reviews, News, World News

NEW YORK (CNS) — Take “Peter Pan,” add a dash of “Alice in Wonderland,” stir in the poetry of William Butler Yeats and you have the recipe for “Come Away” (Relativity), an intriguing if slightly schizophrenic fairy tale.

Director Brenda Chapman has plowed similar creative ground before with her 2012 medieval Scottish fantasy “Brave.” This time, working from a script by Marissa Kate Goodhill, she updates the setting to late-Victorian England and concocts a revisionist origin story for the iconic characters created by J.M. Barrie and Lewis Carroll.

It’s an ambitious goal, and “Come Away” falls short, veering from enchantment to melancholy and back again, with echoes of 2004’s “Finding Neverland.” Still, this messy mash-up is mostly wholesome, family-friendly fare likely to spark the imaginations of young viewers.

The starting point is Yeats’ 1889 poem “The Stolen Child,” with its inviting lines, “Come away, O human child!/To the waters and the wild/With a faery, hand in hand/For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

There’s little sadness on display, at least initially, at the Littleton home, deep in a sun-dappled forest within which the family’s three children revel in battling make-believe pirates and hosting tea parties with plush toys.

The sprightly 8-year-old is named — naturally — Alice (Keira Chansa), and her mischievous brother is Peter (Jordan Nash). They follow the lead of their dashing older sibling David (Reece Yates), soon to leave home for boarding school.

Loving mother Rose (Angelina Jolie) encourages their imaginative play, while father Jack (David Oyelowo) makes a living carving model ships for a wealthy patron, Mr. Brown (Derek Jacobi).

It’s all too good to last, and when tragedy strikes, their idyllic world is turned upside down. A secret problem is revealed, and it falls to Alice and Peter to make a perilous journey to London to find a solution. There they encounter a host of colorful characters who resemble other creations by Barrie and Carroll.

Good thing Alice carries the trinket she was given by Rose, a lovely bauble fashioned by a passing gypsy. This “tinker’s bell” (hint, hint) will come in handy, especially when Alice stumbles across that big rabbit hole and Peter falls in step with boys who are “lost.”

The film contains mature themes and moments of peril. The Catholic News Service classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.


More movie reviews

Movie Review: ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’

Movie Review: ’65’

TV Review: ‘History of the World: Part II’

Movie Review: ‘Scream VI’

Movie Review: ‘Champions’

Movie Review: ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre’

Copyright © 2020 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Joseph McAleer

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day
  • Hold the tuna casserole; pass the crab cake this Lent
  • Theater program hits new highs at Immaculate Conception
  • Trainor to retire from post as Mount St. Mary’s president in 2024
  • Movie Review: ’65’

| Latest Local News |

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints

Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day

| Latest World News |

Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm

Do not be afraid to be a witness to God’s love, pope says

Welcoming migrants, refugees is first step toward peace, pope says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm
  • Do not be afraid to be a witness to God’s love, pope says
  • Question Corner: Jesus became man so I could become God?
  • Papa: Acoger a migrantes y refugiados es el primer paso hacia la paz
  • Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81
  • Welcoming migrants, refugees is first step toward peace, pope says
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Good politics brings people together, generates care for others, pope says
  • Wyoming becomes first state to ban abortion pills

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED