Movie Reaction: Peter Rabbit

Formula: Man of the House ^ Hop

There are times when I wonder what I did with my time as a child. There are a lot of things that I don't hold as dear as the rest of the people of my (or any) generation. I never watched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I've watched more Sesame Street as an adult than as a child (not much either way). Reading Rainbow and Ghostwriter are nothing more than theme songs to me*. I sort of remember Shel Silverstein and Maurice Sendak books. Of course I read a little Dr. Seuss, but other than Yertle the Turtle, I wouldn't say I have a special fondness for any of the stories. I never had a Winnie the Pooh book (that I remember). I also don't recall ever coming across Peter Rabbit except at book stores as an adult**.

*From a very young age, I was suspicious of any show that was trying to teach me things.

**For the record, I wasn't neglected as a child. I know my parents did read things to me. I just have little memory for the particular books and carry no fondness of them into adulthood.

So, I went into the Peter Rabbit movie with absolutely no book-based preconceptions or expectations. Call-backs to the book (or is it a book series? I don't know) or fidelity to a story mean nothing to me. All my preconceptions were based on the fact that the film came from Sony Animation, which is still trying to make a name for itself with traditional animation like Hotel Transylvania and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and live-action/animated hybrids like The Smurfs and now Peter Rabbit. I haven't been crazy about any of these films. They haven't created any abominations like the Minions though, so I'm fine with them.

Peter Rabbit tells the story of Peter, voiced by James Corden, his three sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-Tail (Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Daisy Ridley), and cousin Benjamin (Colin Moody). They are constantly trying to break into old man McGregor's garden and rely on McGregor's easy-going next door neighbor, Bea (Rose Byrne) for protection from McGregor if he catches them. After McGregor dies, his estate goes to his high-strung great nephew, Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson). Thomas tries to keep Peter out of the garden. Bea and Thomas start dating. This gets in the way of how close Bea and Peter are. Thus, Thomas and Peter spend the movie fighting for both the garden and Bea. It's a story we've all seen a dozen times and I can promise you that none of the beats are any different.

I saw this movie entirely because I'm obsessed with both Byrne and Gleeson (for very different reasons). In addition to being very talented, Byrne is one of my 2 or 3 biggest celebrity crushes and I have watched a lot of sometimes mediocre movies just because she's in them. She has also proven her comedy bonafides over the last few years (Bridesmaids, Neighbors). However, she's mostly called on to be lovely and charming in this film and she is those things. Gleeson is my modern day Heath Ledger: an actor who has a knack for always picking interesting projects and rises to the level of whatever film he's in. In Peter Rabbit, he tones down his General Hux from Star Wars and lets out a few bursts of Tim from About Time. It's mostly an arch performance and he's good at that. There aren't a lot of standouts in the voicecast. I've noticed a backlash in general against James Corden lately, but I had no problem with him as the voice of Peter. The character is meant to be easy going and a little charming, which could also describe Corden. I did like Daisy Ridley's slightly demented take of Cotton-Tail. Margot Robbie pulls double-duty as both Flopsy and the narrator. She has a pleasant voice, so I have no problem with that.

The comedy in the movie tries way too hard. And it's a weird mix of jokes too. There are a lot of big obvious jokes, like a recurring bit with some singing birds that they try to make funnier with repetition and that only gets less funny each time. There are also a good deal of small, absurd jokes that are easy to miss. In many cases, those jokes felt jarringly out of place. I'd be approaching a scene at one level. The joke would hit at a different level. By the time I recognized that, the scene had moved on. I'd probably enjoy a second viewing of this. In other cases, they hit jokes so hard that they were impossible to miss, which made them a lot less clever. They might as well have said "did you see what we did there?".  I mostly liked the tone of the humor, but I have no trouble seeing how it could turn some people off.

Of course, if you think too hard about this movie, it makes no sense. I'm not sure how anthropomorphic Peter and the other animals are supposed to be. The animals wear clothes and definitely act more human than they should be able to. I don't think they can talk to humans, but the film overly conveniently blurs that line. Byrne's character is the most convinced that they are regular animals, although a lot of that is willful ignorance. It's the kind of inconsistency that I built my One Big Leap for. The movie would've been better served by calling less attention to it, but it's handled with enough levity that it didn't bother me much.

I liked Peter Rabbit enough. It's charming and inoffensive. I like the actors and voice actors enough to forgive a lot of other problems. It made me laugh enough and it stuck to right at 90 minutes, which I appreciate. Perhaps I just have a soft-spot for director/co-writer Will Gluck who also made the 2014 Annie movie, which also had mixed reviews yet I thought was perfectly fine. Whatever the reason, with no childhood fondness to damage, I enjoyed the perfectly harmless Peter Rabbit.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend