UNLOCK YOUR IMAGINATION.
What the world needs is not another movie version of James M. Barrie’s classic play “Peter Pan” (especially not after Steven Spielberg’s unfortunate take on it back in 1991), so that’s not what director Marc Forster has delivered. Instead, he’s focusing on how Barrie came to write the play and what it meant to him and the people in his life. The result is a film that will have you in tears.
It’s the early 1900s. London playwright James Barrie (Johnny Depp) is suffering a creative setback. His latest play is a failure and his marriage is no comfort to him. A chance encounter in a park with a widow, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet), and her four boisterous young sons changes all that. James begins to spend a lot of time with the family, particularly with the boys, engaging in fanciful games that open up his mind to new ideas and help the boys fill a void in their lives created by the death of their father. Little by little, James begins to picture the story that will become “Peter Pan”, but he also neglects his marriage and suffers a reputation for having not, shall we say, honorable intentions toward the widow and the boys; one of those concerned is Sylvia’s mother, Emma Du Maurier (Julie Christie).
We all know the story of “Peter Pan”, which renders it possible for the filmmakers to have their audience nodding in recognition every time James observes something in the boys’ behavior that will end up in the play. There’s a scene where he imagines them lifting from the floor and flying out the bedroom window, and another one where they’re all playing a game where the boys are tied to the mast of a pirate ship, with James as the evil pirate captain with a hook. Those sequences are examples of where Forster uses visual effects to enhance the fantasy, but never goes overboard; sure, there’s CGI at work here, but the fantasies still look as if someone visualized them a hundred years ago.
Sumptuous and worthy
Writer David Magee focuses a lot on how difficult it must have been for someone with a sense of humor and imagination to get any respect in the rigid society of upper-class, Victorian Londoners. We’ve seen plenty of Merchant-Ivory productions and there are times when this sumptuous, worthy adaptation of Allan Knee’s play reminds me of their films – and that’s a compliment. It’s familiar, but not so much as to ruin the experience. There’s no conventional romance here; there is love between James and Sylvia but it is nicely understated.
This is a beautiful and quite moving film; I dare you to try to sit through the final sequences without tears in your eyes. The filmmakers have also captured a childlike sense of awe and wonder, which nicely fits the tale about the boy who won’t grow up; watching the premiere of “Peter Pan” unfold in a London theater, where the audience partly consists of wide-eyed orphans, is a joy.
The actors know how to work their charm. Depp is very good as the Scottish playwright. James Barrie is like a child who knows that he must behave like an adult but would rather run around in a garden dressed like a pirate; likeable, yes, but the film also clearly shows how he is to blame for the collapse of his marriage.
Depp has terrific rapport with the young boys who play the Davies brood; Freddie Highmore is highly memorable as Peter, the one of the brothers who finds it the most difficult to go on without his father. And we know that Forster must have a sense of humor when he casts Captain Hook himself, Dustin Hoffman, as a theater producer. How appropriate.
Finding Neverland 2004-U.S.-Britain. 101 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Nellie Bellflower, Richard N. Gladstein. Directed by Marc Forster. Screenplay: David Magee. Play: Allan Knee (“The Man Who Was Peter Pan”). Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer. Music: Jan A.P. Kaczmarek. Cast: Johnny Depp (James M. Barrie), Kate Winslet (Sylvia Llewelyn Davies), Julie Christie (Emma Du Maurier), Radha Mitchell, Dustin Hoffman, Freddie Highmore.
Oscar: Best Original Score.Â
Last word: “‘Finding Neverland’ was pretty tricky […] because when I read the script it had a certain sentimental edge to it to say the least. So, to figure out that you’re constantly trying to hold everybody back and try to fight against any kind of manipulation… ultimately, you can’t get away with it because you’re still manipulating. You just try to do everything you can to fight against it at all costs.” (Forster, Collider)
