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Plot Summary: The movie details the experiences of 'Peter Pan' author J.M. Barrie, which lead him to write the children's classic...
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the unemployed critic
Date: 1 November 2004
Summary: While 'Neverland' isn't the definitive word on Barrie's life, it's a heartfelt movie that does manage to evoke the magic of 'Peter Pan' in the most refreshingly basic, unexpected ways...
Finding Neverland
After his latest play bombs almost the minute it premieres, playwright J. M. Barrie (Johnny Depp, navigating a good Scottish accent) is instructed by his producer (Dustin Hoffman, who played Captain Hook in Steven Spielberg's 'Hook') to come up with something different fast. Spending his afternoons in the park collecting his thoughts, Barrie comes across a widow, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet), and her young sons George, Jack, Michael, and troubled Peter (Freddie Highmore). Barrie is instantly smitten with the Davies' lively family dynamic, and soon takes to spending every free moment with them, much to the annoyance of his chilly wife, Mary (Radha Mitchell). As Barrie's life begins to intermix with the Davies through tragedies and silliness, he begins to map out plans for his next play: something about a boy who doesn't want to grow up, flying around Neverland with his pal Tinkerbell, and being chased by a furious pirate with a hook for a hand.
Easily one of the most popular (and often performed) plays of all time, 'Peter Pan' has been adapted into countless motion pictures, the most recent being last holiday season's big-budgeted, mediocre 'Peter Pan,' which failed to attract much of an audience. 'Finding Neverland' strips away all the flying, lost boys, and Hook in favor of trying to imagine the process playwright J.M. Barrie went through to get to his finest creation, overcoming emotional and societal hurdles along the way with his boyish charms and refusal to abandon his innocence.
Director Marc Forster, working off the 'Neverland' play by Alan Knee, is a strange choice for this material, having just come off his sexually explicit, racially charged drama 'Monster's Ball.' Heading into family friendly PG territory, Forster's command of the story is where 'Neverland' lacks the most pixie dust. Afraid to rock the boat too much, Forster allows some fairly annoying, repetitive dramatic devices to overthrow his film at crucial intervals. The most pointed example being Julie Christie's overbearing, stiff upper lip portrayal of Sylvia's disapproving mother, who is only necessary as Barrie's basis for Captain Hook and as a dusty dramatic device to crowbar some tension into a film that's already overdrawn at that bank. 'Neverland' is filled with little forced moments and performances like this, which take away from what Forster does best: depicting Barrie's imagination.
The 'Peter Pan' genesis sequences are the film's standout moments, with Forster not letting down the endless possibilities for these scenes. Barrie's playful mind races at the mere thought of these children, providing inspiration for evil pirates (it's good fun to see Depp lay down the 'arrr, matey' again), Indian adventures, and the central theme of the play: the end of childhood innocence. The visuals are a creative blend of theatrical settings with CG environments that represent Barrie's limitless imagination, and the wonderment of these scenes is not lost in the technology that provides them. In fact, Barrie's brainstorming sequences are the only buoys of pleasure to be found at times when the film gets a little sludgy with domestic drama and, again, Christie's achingly creaky schoolmarm performance.
Unlike 'Peter Pan,' 'Neverland' is not specifically a family film, with the crumbling of Barrie's marriage a major plot thread in the picture, and a curious, lightning quick treatment of Barrie's allegedly inappropriate behavior with the Davies boys (brought up by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). The weightier, less fanciful moments of life and death are handled well by Depp and Winslet (two flawless talents), who anchor the picture in a reality that balances soundly with the well-known fantasy. While 'Neverland' isn't the definitive word on Barrie's life, it's a heartfelt movie that does manage to evoke the magic of 'Peter Pan' in the most refreshingly basic, unexpected ways. ---- 7/10 >>> |
