STACK January 2017 Issue 147

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We challenged a friend, who
hadn’t heard of Miss Peregrine’s
Home for Peculiar Children, to
guess the director. With scarcely
a second’s thought they proffered,
“Tim Burton?” The title screams
Burton’s affinity for the offbeat,
the out there – the, well, peculiar.
From Pee-wee’s Big Adventure to
Edward Scissorhands , Ed Wood
to – uh, we’ll shoom past our
word count if we keep listing – he’s championed the
underdog. Such is the case here, with this visual movie
feast based on a visual novel feast, Ransom Riggs’ book
of the same name. It centres upon young social outcast
Jake (Asa Butterfield), and the murder of his beloved
grandpa. The manner of his grandfather’s death causes
Jake to realise that his fantastic tales of monsters and
more weren’t mere fiction, leading him to Wales. Here
Jake discovers the home of the title, the appropriately
birdlike Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) and her youthful
charges – each of whom are, duh, peculiar! With
invisible types to the super-strong, floaty, fiery and
beyond, Jake discovers that he belongs – and is critical
to the survival of his newfound, time-travelling family.
It’s grand adventure – and without a Depp (or Elfman)
in sight! AF (See page 20)
Scary Poppins.
MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
If you commute by train and
choose to look out the window,
you can peer in on everything
from the mundanity of gridlocked
drivers to the excitement of artful
graffiti. Psychological thriller The
Girl on the Train, based on the
smash hit novel by Paula Hawkins
but moved from London to New
York, sees Emily Blunt as Rachel
Wilson, who becomes involved
in a wholly more Rear Window-
like approach to railway voyeurism. She’s a jobless
alcoholic, barely keeping herself together since the
end of her marriage, which followed a bout of cheating
by her ex – who’s now shacked up in her house with
the subject of his affair and a bouncy new baby. So
why the daily commute? She isn’t doing it for work,
rather she’s trying to maintain some semblance of her
normal life before losing her job. It’s on this daily back-
and-forth that she becomes somewhat fixated upon
former neighbours of hers. When one of them turns
up dead, Rachel becomes embroiled in the mystery...
It’s no airy girls’ night out, but worth the price of
admission simply for Blunt’s gobsmacking immersion
into her character’s grim life. AF (See page 24)
Who do you trust when you can’t trust yourself?
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
DVD & BD
The Peculiar Story
Map of Days
“Wish That You Were Here” –
Florence + The Machine Music
Video
Gallery
BD ONLY
The Peculiars
Hollows and Ex-Hollows
Dark Shadows
EXTRAS
FURTHER VIEWING
Release Date: 04/01/17
Format:
Gone Girl
EXTRAS
FURTHER VIEWING
Release Date: 25/01/17
TOP
HITS
TOP
HITS
DVD & BD
Deleted and Extended Scenes
The Women Behind the Girl
On Board the Train
Feature Commentary with
Director Tate Taylor
Format:
visit
28 JANUARY 2017
DVD&BD
REVIEWS
The novel debuted at No. 1 on
The New York Times Fiction
Best Sellers of 2015 list and
remained in the top position for
15 weeks, 13 of which were
consecutive. The book had sold
more than 3 million copies in
the United States alone as of
July 2015.
In the book, Rachel Watson
is described as chubby from
being an alcoholic. Emily
Blunt was pregnant with her
daughter Violet during filming.
DID YOU KNOW...
Author Ransom Riggs has
published three books in this
series. The sequel to the first
book is Hollow City, followed by
Library of Souls.
Eva Green was very fond of
the pipe, citing it as a beautiful
prop combining feminine and
masculine aspects of Miss
Peregrine’s character. She
ultimately kept it as a souvenir.
DID YOU KNOW...