Finding Neverland

Every holiday season Harvey Weinstein and Miramax talk up one of their properties, fully expecting everyone to bow and throw awards at it as soon as it's released. This year it's Finding Neverland, which has produced a lot of buzz in favor of Johnny Depp's sophisticated performance. Although the film deserves all the praise it gets, it is understandable that moviegoers are a little weary with another dramatic period piece, with another "oscar caliber" cast, about yet another take on Peter Pan.

The bottom line is, this movie is phenomenal. Exploring the major theme of Barrie's play (that of a boy who never grows up), Finding Neverland refrains from condemning grown-ups, but exalts the wild magic one can enjoy as a kid. For James, who had to deal with his family's reticence upon the death of his brother, the real tragedy occurs when a child is forced to grow up too fast.

My favorite idea from this film is this: life finds a way to put into our lives the people we're supposed to be living our lives with. James and Sylvia needed each other, and they needed each other at that particular time. Life took care of them.

The film does indeed move at a snail's pace. Consider that part of the set design. Just as the characters go about 1905 London in top hats and buttoned-down gowns, so does the movie develop in a manner which would have been fitting for a time which preceded MTV-generation attention spans by about a hundred years.

As for the acting, it is wonderful. Depp is understated and gallant, Kate Winslet is lovely and tragic, and they're both better than I've ever seen them. Julie Christie is brutally ominous as the matriarch who can gum up everyone's happiness. Dustin Hoffman, although out of place, brings a dry wit as a risk-taking businessman. The boys playing the Davis kids are a lot of fun to watch and play their dramatic parts perfectly.

If you want something where all the pieces of the magic puzzle that is movie-making come together with grace, charm, and humanity, you won't find a more rewarding film than this.

Of course it takes liberties with the truth, not the first biographical drama to do that, but I cannot deny that Finding Neverland was very magical and affecting and was beautifully crafted not only in visuals but in acting too. Plus it made me believe in Peter Pan again, and that is a wonderful feeling as Peter Pan is one of my all-time favourite stories. The cinematography, costumes, locations and scenery are absolutely stunning, and the score gives the film its magical feeling. The script had its deft touches, the story had a perfect balance of the humorous and the tragic, and director Marc Forster deserves credit for making even those mundane events into something somewhat enchanting. The acting is wonderful too- Johnny Depp is nothing short of magnificent as JM Barrie as he alternates between being playful and sensitive, it was his sensitive side especially that made his performance so good. Kate Winslet is very tender as Sylvia and Dustin Hoffmann impresses in a smaller role. Even the kids were good, especially Freddie Highmore who offers a wonderful portrayal as the serious-minded Peter. In conclusion, beautiful film, very affecting when it needed to be and quite magical to say the least. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I don't know how good this movie is and I don't care because I loved it. It left me kind of numb. Moved, transported, enchanted. That's exactly how I want to feel when I get out of a movie. "Finding Neverland" gave it to me, in spades. Johnny Depp, hey Johnny you're the best we've got. I forgot that it was you two minutes into the movie, I only knew I loved that character. That in itself is part of the many miracles the movie has in store. Yours, is a performance of perfect beauty. Kate Winslet is quickly becoming my favourite actress. Julie Christie is, was and always will be my "Darling" but Freddie Highmore, you and your brothers gave me one the best evenings in a movie theatre I had in a long, long, time. My girlfriend just read my comment over my shoulder, her comment was very succinct: "You write like a woman" Okay, let's see if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Good night kids.

The real J.M. Barrie was influenced and inspired as a child in Scotland by the adventurous stories of Robert Louis Stevenson of pirates, Indians and kidnapped boys. As a young journalist in London in the peak years of the Gilded Age his vivid imagination took him from novels to stage-plays.

Barrie loved games and founded a cricket club with fellow writers Arthur Conan Doyle and P.G. Wodehouse. An old nugget describing his personality tells of his comments upon himself and others that often appeared in the newspapers. He once remarked to H.G. Wells, "It is all very well to be able to write books, but can you wiggle your ears?" It was in the very early years of the 20th Century, now 101 years ago and the same year that in the windy Outer Banks of North Carolina that the Wright Brothers took flight that Jamie Barrie's Peter Pan soared into the air on wires in the London stage.

Marc Forester's fascinating film biography adapted by David Magee from Allan Knee's play, "The Man Who Was Peter Pan," now comes to us in this delightful, moving account, 'Finding Neverland.' It presents historical reality between lushly imagined expeditions to a fictitious Neverland. It's performed impeccably by Johnny Depp as Sir James Mathew Barrie and an extraordinary cast under the able direction of Marc Forster.

This is the loveliest film of the year, highly recommended. Bring Kleenex for the final scenes and see how difficult it is to leave the theater and return to today.

FINDING NEVERLAND is that rare work of art that transcends the medium of film and becomes a spirit-altering experience. Strong accolades? Gush? Perhaps so, but squeeze time out of the clutter of life and the holidays to see this movie and be transported to a place that nurturingly reassures us that the cycle of life is indeed good. Find Neverland!Marc Forster ('Monster Ball') has created a lovingly tender look at the playwright JM Barrie (Johnny Depp) in 1903 when, down on his luck with theater flops, unfulfilled by a marriage of Victorian standards to a beautiful but aloof and social climbing wife Mary (Radha Mitchell), and with writer's block, he encounters the Llewellyn Davies family - a widow Sylvia (Kate Winslet) and her four boys, George (Nick Roud), Jack (Joe Prospero), Michael (Luke Spill) and Peter (Freddie Highmore) - playing blissfully in Kensington Gardens. Barrie is captivated, draws the boys to him with his patient and infectious enthusiasm for play, and bonds with this family, gaining the obvious seeds for his highest achievement or creation, PETER PAN.How these seeds grow, despite the soft, yet supportive, growling of his producer Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) and the not so soft interference of Sylvia's wealthy haughty mother Madame du Maurier (Julie Christie), form the storyline of this film. The magic comes from the skill of the writers (Alan Knee and David Magee) and director, the cinematographer (never has Victorian London glowed with such elegant gaslight presence), and the musical score by Jan Kaczmarek. Cameo roles are treated with tremendous respect: Eileen Essel as Mrs. Snow, Ian Hart as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Kelly MacDonald as the first Peter Pan, etc all are brief but fully realized and poignant. Given this support it is obvious that the talents of the lead performers will shine, and they glow they do with such understated performances that make the simple story of the sanctity of the inner child so cogent that there is not a dry eye in the house during the thankfully long credits. Johnny Depp continues to prove that he is one of the finest actors on the screen today: his Barrie has a flawless Scottish accent and a manner of movement and facial expressions that make him a gentle hero. Kate Winslet, never more beautiful, likewise embodies Sylvia with exactly the right amount of perk and pathos, and as her mother, Julie Christie is strikingly beautiful and unfailingly solid in a role less than loving. The boys are artfully recreated, never absurdly over the top, always very close to the bridge that crosses the craggy canyon between childhood and adulthood. Growing up has never been better portrayed - by all of the characters!In a time when too often films that address magic and imagination rely on computer effects to create creatures that are comic book absurd, FINDING NEVERLAND relies on simply showing the stage mechanics of the play, suspending wires and all, even in the climax of the story when Barrie brings his successful play to the living room of the ill Sylvia in order to keep his promise to her to take her to Neverland. No gimmicks here, just solid stagecraft very much in keeping with the inherent magic of Barrie's enduring play. This is a brilliant cinematic accomplishment - a feast for the eyes, the ears, the brain, and the soul. Please don't miss it! Grady Harp, November 2004