COME AWAY (2020)

COME AWAY (2020)

(Fantasy, Alternate Viewpoint, Drama [PG]

One pill makes you larger, And one pill makes you small, And the ones that mother gives you, Don't do anything at all, Go ask Alice, When she's ten feet tall

There aren’t very many previews for movies that I miss and after watching the preview for this one I was intrigued with the premise for this movie. 

In this one, Jack (played by David Oyelowo famous for SELMA and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) and Rose (played by Angelina Jolie who was epic in both MALEFICENT movies) have 3 kids. These kids pretty much play all day and that is heavily encouraged by their parents. The oldest son David (played by Reece Yates) is also finding ways to excel in school and is going to be sent off to a great school. Alice Littleton (played by Keira Chansa) is wildly imaginative as is her other brother Peter (played by Jordan A. Nash). David ends up dying in an accident both Alice and Peter use their imagination and bravery to try to resolve their parents' grief and find a way to free their father from an oppressor he knows extremely well.

Oh, man. So when you watch the preview for this thing they pretty much tell you that Alice is literally “Alice In Wonderland” and Peter is literally “Peter Pan”. The story revolves around their real lives before they became both but in a different retelling of both of their lives. Disney’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND takes a similar approach, but in this movie, we are given a whimsical beginning full of hope and light and given light introductions to the parents. This is all well and fine. Sadly as the movie progresses we see pretty much everyone’s lives turned upside down and while kids are resilient and the way they overcome challenges the parents basically spiral. What we’ve got now is a dismal realistic world where there would have been little expectation of such in the setup. Twists I am normally down with, but unfortunately, these circumstances in this movie bring this fun light-hearted movie to a screeching depressing halt. 

Cinematically and effects-wise this movie is actually pretty good. We don’t see any of the typical “fantasy” elements you might expect but what we do see in the presentation of certain ideas is well carried out. We also get a ton of great acting in this movie. Both Keira Chansa and Jordan A. Nash are very young, but really embraced the roles they were given. Performance-wise I actually don’t have any issues with this film. 

Where this movie completely misses the mark for me is in its story. Brenda Chapman is an extremely talented writer and director, but holy cow, this thing just struggles. The storyline is drab, miserable, hopeless, and downtrodden. This is the same person that directed PRICE OF EGYPT and BRAVE in case you are not familiar with her work. We are given glimpses of hope and the wonderful abilities of these kids to have fun with their imaginations but by the ending and even in the themes we are given the ultimate message from the parents seems to be, “if you have a problem, just check out or break stuff”. From one of them, it’s actually more specifically “just drink it away”. 

Setting my expectations aside, I can recognize where this movie was successful and the talent of the cast and some of the camera work was superb. The whimsical fun moments of the movie make up maybe 5 minutes of its entire run time. Unfortunately what we’ve got here is a story that really can’t be fixed. Even the nods to the original works like the use of one of the Mad Hatter’s riddles from “Alice In Wonderland” comes across as a band-aid when looking at the final film after the fact. This thing is a downer for which there is no antidote, no potion, other than to just avoid it. I can’t recommend it for any age group. I wish this stellar cast and everyone involved better luck on other projects.  

For me, this is a 2 out of 7.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF ENDURANCE MEDIA  AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.