Come Away is a 2020 fantasy-drama film directed by Brenda Chapman (Brave, The Prince of Egypt) in her live-action debut, and starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo and Michael Caine.
Set before the famous tales of how Peter became Pan and Alice went to Wonderland, siblings Peter and Alice try to help their parents (Oyelowo and Jolie) not fall into despair following the tragic death of their older brother, only to then be forced to choose between their darkening home or the world of imagination.
It made its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival before being released digitally later that year.
Come Away includes examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Rose becomes this out of grief over David's death.
- Adapted Out: Alice's older sister does not exist in this version.
- An Arm and a Leg: CJ settles the debt Jack owes him by crushing one of the latter's hands, making it useless for Jack and forcing it to be amputated. Peter later pays CJ back for it cutting off one of his hands in the middle of a sword fight.
- And You Were There: Certain characters in the real world double as characters from Wonderland or Neverland in Alice and Peter's imaginations:
- Rose doubles as the Queen of Hearts.
- Aunt Eleanor doubles as the Red Queen.
- CJ doubles as Captain Hook
- David doubles posthumously as the voice of the White Rabbit.
- Anti-Escapism Aesop: Subverted; this movie actually makes a strong argument for fantasy as a means of coping with the pain and hardships of life.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Peter takes David's habit of crowing like a rooster for himself following the latter's death.
- Cain and Abel: Jack and CJ. Rose and Eleanor are a milder version of this trope.
- Canon Foreigner: David (Alice and Peter's older brother) and Aunt Eleanor (Alice, Peter and David's aunt on their mother's side).
- Composite Character: Alice is also Mrs. Darling in this version!
- Averted, however, with the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen, who are separate characters as in the original books.
- Crossover: For Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Jack has a past problem with gambling and a less than happy history with his criminal brother CJ, both of which come back into play following David's death.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: Alice makes her famous trip down the Trope Namer in the last act of the film.
- Evil Uncle: CJ to Alice and Peter.
- Follow the White Rabbit: What Alice inevitably ends up doing to travel to Wonderland.
- Foregone Conclusion: Alice will travel to Wonderland and return, while Peter will travel to Neverland and stay there.
- Framing Device: The story is framed as the adult Alice/Mrs. Darling reading the story of her and Peter's childhood to her children Wendy, John and Michael.
- The Gambling Addict: Jack used to have this problem before marrying Rose, and falls back into it after David's death, causing him to once again fall into debt to his shady brother CJ.
- The Ghost: Aunt Eleanor's husband William is mentioned several times but never actually seen.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: How Alice sees both the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen.
- Hook Hand: Courtesy of Captain Hook/ CJ, as always.
- I Choose to Stay: Peter ends up choosing his new life in Neverland over his life in the real world.
- Imagine Spot: A good deal of the movie's fantasy elements are initially just the imaginations of Alice, Peter and David being shown for the audience onscreen.
- I Reject Your Reality: Alice refuses to accept that David is really dead, insisting instead that he's merely "disappeared". It takes seeing a photo of David's corpse lying in its coffin for her to admit the truth.
- Innocence Lost: The movie is about Peter and Alice fighting to not lose their innocence after something so tragic as the death of their brother. The children bounce between coping mechanisms of staying in their imaginary world forever or trying to grow up quicker. By the end, neither loses their innocence completely, although Alice does grow into a lady and mother.
- Living Toys: The White Rabbit is one of Alice's stuffed toys who comes to life at the climax of the film.
- The Mad Hatter: The Trope Namer (or at least the inspiration for him) appears in the film.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It becomes increasingly uncertain as the movie continues if the increasing fantasy elements are real or all just in Alice and Peter's imaginations.
- Mr. Imagination: Alice, Peter and David all have very vivid imaginations and what they're seeing in their heads is often shown onscreen.
- Off with His Head!: Uttered (as always) by the Queen of Hearts.
- Pink Elephants: Alice drinks from her mother's forbidden vial of alcohol and hallucinates that it's the famous "Drink Me" bottle that makes her shrink to a tiny size.
- Plot-Triggering Death: David's death at the end of the film's first act is what sets everything that follows in motion.
- Prequel: The film depicts versions of Peter Pan and Alice before the stories they originate from.
- The Proud Elite: Aunt Eleanor.
- Race Lift:
- Peter and Alice are traditionally Caucasian, but here are presumably biracial with a black father and white mother.
- The Mad Hatter is black in this version, as is Captain Hook.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- Peter and Alice are brother and sister, being from different, unconnected source materials that didn't connect prior.
- Wendy, John and Michael Darling are Peter's niece and nephews in this version, since Alice is also Mrs. Darling.
- The Mad Hatter and Captain Hook are Jack's father and brother respectively, thus making them Alice and Peter's grandfather and uncle and Wendy, John, Michael's great-grandfather and great-uncle.
- Scary Black Man: CJ/Captain Hook.
- Scatterbrained Senior: The "Hatter" at the Pawnshop is clearly off his rocker, prancing around, talking about nonsense. When he meets his son Jack again, he doesn't even seem to know it's been years since they saw each other last.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: David is struck by a bolt of lightning right after having accidentally fallen into the river. He's instantly fried to death by it.
- Taxidermy Terror: The Crocodile is a stuffed and mounted figure on a wall of the Hatter's pawnshop who comes alive at the climax to eat CJ's hand and pocket watch.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Alice is played by Keira Chansa as a child and Gugu Mbatha Raw as an adult.
- The Wonderland: The film very briefly shows part of Alice's journey to the Trope Namer itself.
