Movie Review: Finding Neverland

Marc Foster - Director
Johnny Depp - Sir James Matthew Barrie
Kate Winslet - Sylvia Llewelyn Davies
Julie Christie - Mrs. Emma du Maurier
Radha Mitchell - Mary Ansell Barrie
Dustin Hoffman - Charles Frohman
Freddie Highmore - Peter Llewelyn Davies
Nick Roud - George Llewelyn Davies


Captain Barrie is about to make one of his crew walk the plank in Finding Neverland.


Johnny Depp, as I've said before, has made a career out of portraying odd characters and roles most actors would be unable to pull off. Finding Neverland marks a departure for Depp, playing the nice, normal (comparitively speaking) character of Sir James Matthew Barrie - the author of Peter Pan. This film (which is based on true events) is about Barrie and the people and events that inspired his writing of Peter Pan.

At the onset of the film we learn that Barrie is a playwright who's latest project is a flop. We also soon learn that his marriage is floundering. He and his wife seem to live in different worlds and have little common ground. One day while sitting in the park he meets the Davies family who would become his muse for his career masterpiece, Peter Pan. He plays with the children as if he were one of them, teaching them to harness their imaginations and play without abandon or embarrasment. The widow Davies (Winslet) enjoys his company and the happiness he helps provide for her children. 3 of the 4 children adore him and his free spirited, fun loving ways. Peter, however, will have none of it. Some of film's best dialogue takes place between Barrie and Peter. It's amazing that the other children take to his imaginitive, playful ways as well as they do; few things can make a child grow up faster than losing a parent.

Barrie represents an important force in the lives of the Davies children. Their controlling grandmother (and Barrie's wife) lives in a world where being proper is more important than being happy, where holding one's teacup the Wrong Way would be an embarrasment, where missing a day of church would be cause for vicious gossip. Young boys are not allowed to thrive in such an environment. There is a scene where one of the boys, George, finally tells off his grandmother. It should be satisfying to watch but it isn't because you can see him slipping away into that adult world as so many of us have done in the past.

As the story plays out, Barrie finishes his new play, based on his experiences with the Davies family. The proprietor of the theatre where it is to show is understandably concerned about the play's prospects. "James, we have doctors and lawyers and people dressed in their finest attire coming to watch theatre. You're giving them pirates and indians and fairies!" In a stroke of genius, Barrie reserves several seats in the theatre for children, whose laughter helps ease the crowd and allow them to remember what it was like to be children themselves.

Finding Neverland is another masterful performance by Depp, who has become one of this generation's finest actors. The film is well acted, well written and touching. It touches on the subject of living in the adult world but remembering to visit the world of imagination. This is easily the best movie I've seen in a while, and one that I reccomend to anyone.

Finding Neverland earns 4 wombats out of 4.