Who Needs to Find the Child Within ‘Hook’?

Regarding “Hook”: I can’t think of a worse theme for a film than the need of yuppies to find the child within. All the yuppies I know, myself included, need to find the adult within.

Steven Spielberg and his crew have missed the point of James M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.” A man who misses his son’s ballgame after promising to attend has not lost the child within, he is a child who has not learned to accept responsibilities like an adult. Children are born selfish; they learn to do things for others as part of the process of growing up. That’s why Barrie called children “heartless.”

In “Hook,” the adult Peter Pan goes to Neverland and has all the great adventures himself while his children mostly sit on the sidelines. This reminds me of today’s adults who insist on grabbing all the good times for themselves at the expense of their children. “Never mind the money needed for schools, I have to buy a BMW!” If Barrie had written “Hook,” he would have let Peter’s son Jack have the adventure.

DAVID NATHAN

Los Angeles