Review

Review Date: 28-November-04
Spoiler Rating: High
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Finding Neverland (2004)

The Oscar-bait picture "Finding Neverland" contains many elements of the three-hanky weeper, including adorable children, a big fuzzy dog, beautiful lovers separated by fate, and characters who start out evil but soften in tune with the audience's progressively mushy mood. Engendered by manipulation, these things can cause resentment as much as tears, but "Finding Neverland" achieves such a gentle sincerity that it prevents any feelings of disgust. Toning down the hysterical tendency of his debut, "Monster's Ball," director Marc Forster again uses melodramatic circumstances to explore themes of parental and romantic devotion, and again reaps rewards from an attractive and talented cast.

To everyone's surprise, I'm sure, Johnny Depp delivers an exquisite performance as Scottish author J.M. Barrie, who enjoyed a respectable career as a London playwright at the dawn of the 20th century. As "Finding Neverland" opens, Barrie hits a slump with a poorly received play and a frigid impasse with his wife (Radha Mitchell), who appears to care for their social standing more than his happiness and creativity. (Or perhaps she's just annoyed at finding herself named Mary Barrie.) Escaping to the park with his big fuzzy dog, Barrie meets a passel of young brothers and their pretty, widowed mother, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet), all of whom appreciate his imaginative nature in a way that's irresistible. He soon begins to spend most of his time with them, which angers both his wife and Sylvia's martinet mother (Julie Christie), and inspires him to write his greatest work, "Peter Pan."

The bulk of the hanky-wetting derives from the Davies boys, who barely recover from the loss of their father before having to endure another tragedy. Nick Roud is quite a charmer as the eldest brother, George, while the role of the pivotal Peter is filled with surprising candor by young Freddie Highmore (who will soon reunite with Depp in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"). It's impossible not to feel attached to sweet, suffering kids (unless they're nauseating, which these guys aren't), so the real kudos go to Winslet for bringing depth and grace to a character with little development and a large potential for sentimentality. She seems to be growing more lovely and more definitive with age; together, she and the eternally fabulous Depp convey a sense of significant intimacy without ever so much as a kiss.

Though not as whimsical as "Big Fish," last year's holiday fantasy from Depp collaborator Tim Burton, "Finding Neverland" does propose that the journeys of the mind can alleviate or defeat the pains of everyday reality. I have my doubts about whether such hokum could comfort a child in major distress (as we're meant to believe at the end), but imagination and freedom take on their greatest meaning for the adults in the movie, not the children. I guess this is the key to Peter Pan: the sad knowledge that we lose something with the passing of youth, and the bittersweet desire to recapture it in the throes of adulthood. These notions imbue "Finding Neverland" with a maturity that elevates it above the standard vehicles for life lessons, love stories, and other manifestations of sappiness.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.