When James M. Barrie's play Peter Pan opened in London 100 Christmas Eves ago, critics and theatergoers alike embraced the work as thoughtful adult entertainment — with something extra for the kids who might come along.

Rich in metaphor and psychological insight, the original Peter Pan was as far from the “cutified” Disney version as the real St. Nicholas is from the overstuffed Santa impersonator posing for pictures at the mall. Now, thanks to a 20-year odyssey on the part of producer Lucy Fisher, Peter Pan has finally been brought to the big screen in a telling that would surely make J.M. Barrie proud.

For older children and adults, Peter Pan offers a metaphorical level of enjoyment that is truly rare in the movies but which defines great works of art.

Essentially, the story from the original play and novel belongs to a 12-year-old girl named Wendy Darling. Played charmingly by first-time actress Rachel Hurd Wood, Wendy comes to the attention of her disapproving dowager Aunt Millicent (Lynn Redgrave), who insists it is high time her niece grows up and stops rough-housing with her younger brothers, John and Michael.

Wendy's parents, played wonderfully by Jason Isaacs and Olivia Williams, reluctantly agree to entrust their daughter's coming of age to Aunt Millicent. Wendy is reticent about leaving the carefree happiness of the nursery for the harried exigencies of the adult world. The movie unfolds as Wendy's imagination helps her weigh childhood against adulthood, making a case that each has its joys and terrors. “The magic of the story is that you never know whether Neverland is real or a place in Wendy's mind,” actor Isaacs noted. “Told she has to 'grow up,' Wendy goes to this place in her imagination where she meets these two creatures. One represents eternal childhood without of hint of maturity. The other represents cynical adulthood, without an ounce of playfulness.”

Staying true to the original Barrie production, neither Peter Pan nor Hook are the heroes of this movie. In his first starring role — and one that will make him a star — Jeremy Sumpter brings to his Peter not only a rakish sense of adventure but also a thorough rejection of seriousness, commitment and responsibility. Barrie pre-sciently anticipated the psychological syndrome that would be coined in the 1970s in commenting on Peter's flaws, “All children grow up — that is their tragedy — except Peter Pan — that's his.”

Hook, too, is an extreme character, representing the worst things adulthood can mean: power, greed, treachery and even murder. While there are some comical nuances in Isaacs' performance (as in most productions of the story, he plays both Hook and Wendy's father), director P.J. Hogan noted that he wanted to avoid making Hook farcical. “I wanted Hook to be genuinely scary,” he said. “You don't trust him and he is the stuff of nightmares, like the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.”

Hogan was inspired by the fact that his young sons always want the stories he reads them to have a touch of real darkness. “Kids can see what is around them and that there are evil things out there in the world,” he said. “They want stories to help them understand and deal with it.”

This new version of Peter Pan has drawn some criticism from secular and religious critics for its underlying themes of romance between Wendy and Pan and even between Wendy and Captain Hook.

I heard one Christian writer dismiss this side of the film as “typical Hollywood fare that has to bring sex into everything.” One of the secular critics at the film's press junket actually insinuated that the obvious attraction between Wendy and Hook was perverted because Hook is played by the same actor who plays her father.

One of the problems with living in a perverse moment of history is that people get so sullied they can no longer recognize innocence. Peter Pan has a strong theme of the beauty of first love.

Movie critics, saturated by graphic sexuality, look at 12-year-old Peter and Wendy in the beauty of first attraction and they see eroticism. It's very twisted. The fact is, the theme of first love is absolutely drawn from the original Barrie play and is not a Hollywood gloss.

First love is characterized by innocence and wonder. Wendy, as a young girl on the verge of womanhood, flirts with both Pan and Hook, experiencing the good things that both childhood and adulthood have to offer. The pivotal turning point in the story comes as she tries to get Peter to move out of the whims of childhood and into a more serious relationship.

Wendy imposes the image of her father on Captain Hook because, as a 12-year-old girl, her understanding of manhood cannot be divorced from her father. It's all part of the central metaphor of the original story, which the movie wonderfully preserves. There is nothing sexy about this movie. What is sexy are the times, which poison every discussion of love and attraction between people.

Another positive theme in the movie is a validation of the traditional model of family. The Darling home is warm and loving, with parents who are deeply committed to each other and to their children. The end of the story finds the group of Lost Boys rejecting their play-filled all-male community for adoption by a father and a mother. I suppose because I am infected with the constant advocacy of homosexuality everywhere, I found this part of the storyline particularly exhilarating.

Peter Pan is a wonderful family film of the kind for which Christian parents are always clamoring. Beautiful to look at with a wonderful adventure, children will be thrilled to experience this production. Because it is also a romance and a story with powerful human themes, adults will also find much here to enjoy.

The only question is, if Hollywood can do this kind of thing, why doesn't it do it more often?

Screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi is the director of Act One: Writing for Hollywood. She writes from Los Angeles.