A forgotten fantasy reimagining with an all-star cast and not an ounce of magic saves itself from a spellbinding downward spiral on streaming

If you were to judge a book entirely by its cover – or in this case a movie – then it would stand to reason that 2020’s Come Away was destined to become a sizeable smash hit that captured imaginations all over the world.

As Disney can attest with its multi-billion dollar enterprise, live-action reboots of beloved fairytales remain all the rage, and this one boasted a stacked roster of talent for good measure, never mind that it marked the first live-action feature from Academy Award-winning Brave director Brenda Chapman.

The preposterously stacked ensemble featured Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Clarke Peters, Michael Caine, David Gyasi, and Derek Jacobi, the majority of whom were playing thinly-veiled reinventions of iconic characters including the Queen of Hearts, Alice of Wonderland fame, the Mad Hatter, Captain Hook, and plenty more besides.

Unfortunately, a combination of the pandemic and bad reviews cut Come Away off at the knees, with respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 29 and 53 percent hardly painting a must-see picture. That being said, it might end up finding some life as a cult curio, with FlixPatrol revealing it to have crept onto the Starz most-watched list over the weekend as it finally shows faint signs of life.

Homaging Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the story paints the two title characters as siblings who try and help their grief-stricken parents deal with the death of their eldest child. A+ for ambition and star power without a doubt, but a C for execution if we’re being generous.