4 outta 5

Finding Neverland reaffirms belief in the power of imagination and reminds everyone of what it feels like to soar in a land of make-believe once again. This is the story of playwright J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) and how he created the world of Peter Pan and Captain Hook.  The smart thing about the movie is Peter Pan’s underlying themes of belief in fairy tales, not wanting to grow up, dealing with the schism between childhood and adulthood and all that nifty subtext also pops up “Neverland”. The screenplay by David Magee is based upon Alan Knee’s play “The Man Who Was Peter Pan”. It may fudge a few of the real-life facts, but the film has a nice thematic synchronicity with the Peter Pan story.

Inspiration is a strange thing, but the movie shows how Barrie managed to pull Peter Pan out of existence from the mundane and sometimes stifling world of 1903 England. Johnny Depp chalks up yet another role the “eccentric” column, but this is probably his most relatable oddball to date.  Depp plays Barrie as someone who is capable of dealing with the world of real-life adults but he’s able to let himself go into Neverland whenever he pleases.  To Barrie, the real world is a nice place to visit, but he wouldn’t want to live there.  True inspiration for his Neverland tale comes in the form of Sylvia Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four boys.

Now this part might get a little sticky, with the plot revolving around a grown man fixated on young boys and the freedom of imagination.  But Depp never plays it creepy; instead he alternates between an understanding adult and someone who can see the fantasy world of children. The movie itself even makes a point to have Barrie say, “How could someone take something as innocent as that and turn it into a thing of evil?”  So there. Nyah-nyah-nah-nyah-nyah.

Kate Winslet is always capable of being sympathetic and heartbreaking all at once, as she proved in this year’s “Eternal Sunshine”.  She doesn’t find Barrie’s fixation on the imaginary to be off-putting; in fact, she welcomes this stranger into her life and finds comfort in the world Barrie creates with her children. However, she suffers from a tragic ailment known as “Movie Cough of Doom”.  The script never actually specifies what her malady is, but you know the rules: if somebody coughs in a film they’re not long for this world.

The actors portraying the Davies children don’t exactly break any new ground.  They seem to have two modes in the film – happy or sad.   I could swear the youngest child at one point was reading off cue cards for his lines.   The main child, Peter (Freddie Highmore), fares better because his part is actually interesting.  He’s the one kid who doesn’t want to believe all this rubbish about fantasy and make-believe.  Barrie sees a creative spark in the kid and tries to draw him out of his shell, with limited success.   It’s a fairly interesting arc for the character and gives the young actor a chance in the spotlight.  

The supporting actors do a fairly admirable job of swelling the progress of a scene or two.  The highlight of the bit parts has to be Dustin Hoffman playing the long-suffering owner of the theatre that shows Barrie’s plays.  Hoffman adds a nice sense of world-weariness to his performance; tolerating Barrie’s eccentricities not because he believes in him, but because they’re too deep in debt to get out of it.  It’s a nice resigned slow-burn, though a sadistic part of me kind of wished that Hoffman had reprised his immortal role as Captain Hook from Spielberg’s ’91 opus “Hook”.  The other supporting characters don’t fare as well; the boys’ grandmother is reduced to the role of killjoy.  Radha Mitchell, who plays Barrie’s cold and distant wife, tries valiantly to rise above the limited role but she isn’t given enough to do and gets eventually gets stuck as killjoy #2. 

Marc Forster’s direction in “Finding Neverland” strikes a nice balance between the real and the imagined.  A cool trick that is repeated throughout the movie is cutting from the real world to the fantasy world to show who believes and who doesn’t.  The directorial touches show how a backyard can suddenly become the Wild West, or how an old dog can be turned into a dancing bear through a child’s imagination.   That may sound confusing, but it’s all done with such a steady hand you can follow along easily.  The film also shows us Barrie’s point of view as the world of Peter Pan springs to life around him.  Children jumping on the bed or an angry grandmother holding a coat hanger are seeds of inspiration, and we see all of that unfolding in his mind’s eye.  

“Finding Neverland” also contains some of the most imaginative use of special effects all year.  It’s not flashy in the least, its extremely subtle, but it draws you into the fantasy world of Barrie and the Davies children.  A sequence on an imaginary pirate ship uses computer FX to make the waves look like plywood backdrops, complete with a fake shark made of iron.  Also, Depp dusts off his old Captain Jack Sparrow accent in the scene, so that’s a definitely a bonus.

If there’s a drawback to the film its that the proceedings can become a little too over-earnest after awhile.  The magic of make-believe is a good thing; the magic of believing that you can get a kite off the ground really isn’t.  Sure, the central conceit of the film is how imagination can free us but it does have a tendency to border on the melodramatic at times. To borrow a phrase from “Spinal Tap”, the schmaltz level in the film is turned up to 11.  That’s doesn’t mean all the sappy scenes aren’t effective, though.  At one point when Tinkerbell’s light was fading, and belief in fairies is what keeps her alive, I had to stifle an urge to yell out “I BELIEVE IN FARIES!” in the middle of a packed theatre.  No joke. 

In the end, “Finding Neverland” is a celebration how you can see the world from a different way.  It’s about how we have to all grow up, but we can try to recapture childhood fun if we just open our eyes.  It’s about trying not to take the drudgery of grown-up life so seriously and escaping into fantasy.  It’s about family, love, life, death, cynicism, innocence and a lot more.  

“Finding Neverland” opens in a wider release over the next two weeks, try to get a chance to see it.  You won’t regret it.