A Peter Pan story told from Wendy’s

perspective sounds either too precious to be

true or ripe for a skewering. But in the hands of

the filmmakers behind “Beasts of the Southern

Wild,” “Wendy” resides — ever so delicately —

in the space between. It is an achingly earnest,

feral, transporting and (very) loose reimagining

of the classic J.M. Barrie tale about not wanting

to grow up.

Gone are the outdated mores and fancy window

dressings of Barrie’s story, however. Here, the

Darlings are a raggedy American family living

in the Deep South and surviving by slinging

eggs and coffee in a diner full of characters

with weathered faces and hearty laughs. In the

opening scene, Wendy, a rosy cheeked toddler

who is already getting a taste of labor helping

her mom crack eggs over the stove, watches

a young boy flee from his plate of bacon and

the horrifying life sentence of possibly growing

up to be a “broom and mop man.” He spots a

shadow figure of a child on a train speeding

by and follows it out of town, away from the

A WILD SPIN ON

THE PETER PAN

MYTH IN ‘WENDY’