Hook, Line and Tinker

Trey Smith

I am certainly not a film snob. Before watching a theatrical release, I rarely read the reviews from the "experts." Why? Because some of my favorite movies aren't rated that highly. I really don't care about a film's popularity with the masses. What I care about is -- Does the film resonate with me?

Yesterday afternoon I was flipping through the channels and came upon a movie I've watched many times before and will, undoubtedly, watch many times again. It is an updated version of the classic tale of Peter Pan -- Hook starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Roberts. Here is the plot summary from the Internet Movie Database:

Peter Pan (Williams) has grown up to be a cut-throat merger and acquisitions lawyer, and is married to Wendy's granddaughter. Captain Hook (Hoffman) kidnaps his children, and Peter returns to Never Land with Tinkerbell (Roberts). With the help of her and the Lost Boys, he must remember how to be Peter Pan again in order to save his children by battling with Captain Hook once again.

As a child of the 60s, I grew up with the Disney version (and the Mary Martin version too) of Peter Pan. I had the vinyl record as well as the Disney storybook. I had a Peter Pan lunchbox and I ate Peter Pan peanut butter (though I eventually settled on Jif).

As I think you can see, I identified with Peter Pan. In many ways, I thought of myself in terms of Peter. He didn't like the world around him, so he flew away to Never Land. As an odd and lonely child with then-undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome, I didn't like the world around me, so I flew away in my imagination. Peter had the Lost Boys and I had my own sort of Fantasy Boys.

Like the Peter (Banning) character in the movie, I eventually grew up. While the grownup Peter had lost the carefree and creative spark of his youth, the same is not true of me. People who know me well have suggested that I have retained a certain childlike wonderment through the years. I don't disagree with the assessment. I often feel like a kid who simply grew taller and heavier!!

A critical part in the film concerns Peter's efforts to come to terms with his inner younger self. Tinkerbell, a fairy, pulls out all the stops trying to convince Peter Banning that he is, in fact, the grown up Peter Pan. Once he comes to this realization, it is not long before he is able to get in touch in an intimate way with the child within him.

It is at this juncture of the movie in which I always get a sinking feeling. Putting myself into Peter's tights, I realize that he has gone a step further than I appear able to go. When I look into MY past -- even as short as a few days ago -- it's as if I'm looking at pictures on microfiche and reading the captions that describe each scene! I can glean where I've been or what I've done in a detached sense, but, once a moment has come and gone, most often the emotion of that moment disappears into the ether.

So, I vicariously cheer on Peter as he regains the ability to fly, defeats Captain Hook, once and for all, and rescues his children. I understand that if I indeed was Peter Pan, none of those things would have occurred. Captain Hook would still be prowling around and my children would remain in his evil clutches.

While I see quite a few similarities between the fictitious storybook (or movie) Peter Pan and the fictitious variant of me as one and the same, the storybook version is able to complete a journey that I can only travel about halfway.