FILM OF THE WEEK

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (Cert 12, 124 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Fantasy/Drama/Action/Romance, available from January 23 on Amazon Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from February 6 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £27.99/3D Blu-ray £33.99)

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Ella Purnell, Eva Green, Samuel L Jackson, Terence Stamp, Allison Janney, Chris O'Dowd.

Following the death of his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp), grief-stricken teenager Jacob Portman (Asa Butterfield) makes a pilgrimage with his father Franklin (Chris O'Dowd) to Cairnholm island off the coast of Wales - population 93 - where Abe claimed he spent his formative years in a home for gifted children.

Amongst the rubble of the derelict home, Jacob encounters an enchanted girl called Emma Bloom (Ella Purnell), who leads the teenager through a magical time loop set to September 3, 1943, which is controlled by Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine (Eva Green), headmistress of the school.

It transpires that Miss Peregrine and her young charges are being hunted by gnarly, undead creatures called Hollows, led by the menacing Mr Barron (Samuel L Jackson).

Jacob promises Emma and fellow students that he will help them avoid a grim fate. Adapted from the debut novel by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is an entertaining and briskly paced adventure with some lip-smacking macabre touches that once again demonstrate filmmaker Tim Burton's affinity for eccentrics and oddballs.

Butterfield exudes an endearing awkwardness and vulnerability in the lead role and Jane Goldman's script always finds its way back to the heart-rending growing pains of the children. There's plenty of weirdness, but not quite enough wonder to complement Burton's directorial flourishes and the glorious costume and set design that allows the time-travelling narrative to ricochet between 1943 and the present day. Style doesn't trump substance, but it's a close run during some key sequences.

Rating: ***