The family needed a therapist, and she should have been the central character of the story. We said what we said. “The Lost Girls” was a weird watch for us. To be honest, it was quite engaging and the ending was one that had us grinning ear to ear. But the play between actual fantasy and generational mental illness was extremely muddled. And there were certain loopholes, certain unanswered questions, which try as we might, we can’t explain conclusively. And that makes us mad. There is a line in the movie—‘Make believe is your birthright.’ This is a line that would resonate with every single artist out there, which includes those who create and those who consume. And it was the act of trying to make sense of that make-believe that kept us watching the two-hour-long movie riddled with plot holes. Let us see what the movie is about.
Spoilers Ahead
Who Is Peter? What Is His Role In Wendy’s Life?
“The Lost Girls” is an extension of the end of Peter Pan’s story, of his promise to visit the Darlings every few years. It starts with Wendy talking to her grandmother, who was the original Wendy. Her grandmother tells her that she will soon meet a boy called Peter and she will fall in love with him. But she also tells her to not let her emotions run her heart. The next scene cuts to Wendy being homeschooled by her father. We do not really understand the reason for his decision here. Wendy’s mother, Jane, has left them, so could it be from a fear of losing her daughter? Or is he in some way aware of the Peter Pan effect on the women of the Darling family and this is his way of protecting his daughter? The reason for his decision is not made clear. We also don’t understand it when, at her wedding, he tells her that he wishes she had seen more of the world when he literally did not let her.
After a certain point of time, Wendy starts going to normal school. Which is when she meets Peter Pan. She finds him crying, and true to the story, he asks her to fly away with him. But Wendy is aware of this being a possible problem with the women in her family. Nevertheless, she is tempted. She tells him that she can’t cook or be a mother to anyone, but she does want an adventure. And Peter gives her one by flying with her through the sky. He makes her promise him to never grow up. Wendy also ends up meeting Captain Hook, who tries to forcibly kiss her. But Wendy escapes from him.
The next day, she is confused if this was real or just a dream. And this confusion follows her through her life. After she gets married, she frequently thinks about Peter. In fact, at her wedding, she is constantly thinking about her promise to him as she says her vows to her husband. Once Wendy’s daughter grows up to be a toddler, her father remarks that she is very much like Jane. And as the years pass by, we see that her family has come to resent her, in some measure, for her being unable to get over her childhood memory of Peter. Why are you just not getting your mother a therapist instead of using her mental illness to call her a bad mother? At a mother-daughter trip to meet Wendy’s grandmother, her Nana remarks that Peter would come to meet Berry soon enough. It’s one thing for the women of the family to fall in love with Peter, but they don’t have to carry it as a burden their entire lives.
As Nana predicts, Peter does come to meet Berry. And she is more than ready to fly away with him. But unlike her predecessors, instead of this being a beautiful dream, it turns into a nightmare when she falls out of her window. The Thai serves as a wake-up call for Wendy. She is forced to confront her own story with Peter. She ends up meeting Captain Hook again, and he tells her that he and Peter are a part of each other. And all the women in the Darling family will continue to be victims of their story. Once Wendy hears this, she chooses to walk away, signifying that she is leaving behind her childhood story. She also tells Peter that she has grown up and can’t meet him any longer.
‘The Lost Girls’ Ending Explained- Does Wendy Meet Her Mother? Do They Get Over Peter Pan?
Once Berry wakes up in the hospital, she cries and tells Wendy that, despite herself, she had believed in Wendy’s dream and when it started happening to her, she was ready to leave. But she doesn’t want to do that anymore and wants to live in reality. The next scene is that of Nana’s funeral, where Wendy gives the eulogy. She says that her Nana lived in two worlds and that was the magic of her life. It is a lesson to be able to get past the pain and find happiness, which maybe she had not been able to do. But that didn’t stop her from encouraging future generations to learn from her mistakes.
At the funeral, Wendy comes across a woman, who he recognizes as her mother. For the first time in many years, they talk to each other. Jane tells her that she herself is not sure who or what Peter Pan was. But she had loved him when she did, just like her mother and daughter. And he loved all of them as if they were one girl. But it was time to leave that all behind. It is time to come back home. This scene signifies that they are choosing to break the family curse, or rather the family promise that Peter Pan made to them.
Final Thoughts: Does The Film Work Or Not?
“The Lost Girls” was a weird movie. The weirdest part is that none of them got treated by a therapist. We still don’t understand the role of Captain Hook in this story other than his connection to the original Peter Pan tale. And as for Peter himself, what was he doing? We understand that love can happen when you are a teenager, but what kind of magic was this that lasted their whole life? That is the reason it feels less like a reality and more like a mental illness that was ignored.
It is an interesting premise to work on the after-effects of a fairy-tale’s adventure. But the movie needed a lot more polish. Maybe if it was done as a series, they could have added in the details that were so glaringly missing in this? We wouldn’t want to give up on this plot just yet. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, hoping someone with better writing and directing skills will discover and salvage it.
“The Lost Girls” is a 2022 Drama Fantasy film directed by Livia De Paolis.
