As is often the case with famous authors, many people will be familiar with their literary output but know very little about their creator. Finding Neverland addresses this imbalance in the case of J.M. Barrie, author of one of the most famous children’s stories ever and offers a beautiful and moving, if highly romanticised story of an important part of his life. Johnny Depp takes on the role of the author and, as is often the case with this talented and versatile actor, turns in a classic performance. It seems that every role Depp touches turns to gold, but in the case of Neverland all lead parts, played by a heavyweight line up of stars are rich and convincing.
J.M. Barrie is a well known scottish playwright, and thankfully Depp is one of the short list of American actors who can pull of an accent, he is locked in a loveless marriage, a marriage of ill-matched personalities and although he is in love with his work, the same cannot be said for his wife. His last play has flopped and although his theatre sponsor (Dustin Hoffman) is good-natured about the loss of income, the pressure is on to write the play that will make his name and reverse his fortunes. It is at this time that during one of his visits to the park where he does a lot of his writing, he meets first the children of society widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and then the women herself. To Barrie the children are a godsend, allowing him to indulge the child at his own heart and before long a closeness for Sylvia (Kate Winslet) begins to develop. Before long the relationship, although always innocent is the scandal of society and Barrie and the Davies family become regarded as the pariahs of their upper class peers. One of the most unapproving is the children’s grandmother played by the wonderful Julie Christie and a tempestuous relationship between her and Barrie ensues resulting in him being almost banned from the children and Sylvias life. During the time with the children Barries imagination is fuelled for a very unusual play, his games with the children results in the characters for his new production, Indians, Pirates, a guardian dog and a boy who can fly and is forever young. By the time Peter Pan opens to unexpected acclaim, Barries marriage is over and tragedy has marred this period of happiness but as his now ex-wife admits, without this relationship with the Davies children his finest work would never have been written.
Finding Neverland works on so many different levels. On the one hand it is a wonderful portrayal of the inspiration of a group of children on the fertile and childlike imagination of the author. On another level it is about believing that many things in life can be achieved if, like Peter Pan, you wish for them enough, but ultimately it deals with the themes of love and loss. There are some wonderfully surreal moments in the film when we see scenes before us transformed by Barries imagination into the Neverland of his mind, gardens become wild west cowboy towns, woodland groves become pirate ships and the myriad wonders of Neverland intrude temporarily on the real world. It is a very moving film, bitter sweet in its nature as the innocent relationship between Barrie and the Davies family is thwarted by human ill applied society standards as well as apparent acts of God. It portrays romance without sexuality as well as love without sickly sweet sentimentality. There is no violence, no shocks just a gentle story that manages to tackle the biggest of human issues with grace and subtlety and yet manages to bring a tear to the eye when you least expect it.
As roles go Depp is on top form, Julie Christie manages to play a difficult character in a way that still makes you understand her and sympathise with her. Kate Winslet provides a moving performance and Hoffman in his small role as Barries friend and patron is gloriously understated and totally convincing, and interestingly Hoffman played the lead in Hook almost a decade earlier, a film derived from Peter Pan. A couple of faces that I didn’t expect to see were Paul Whitehouse as one of Peter Pans play actors and Mackenzie Crook who seems to have followed Depp off of the set of Pirates of the Caribbean and onto this one. The children in the film are the icing on the cake, Freddie Highmore as Peter is magical as the inspiration for the other Peter.
All in all a well written, well acted, well directed film dealing with big issues on a small scale and relying totally on the script and its portrayal by the films players, there are not many of this type of film being made any more, maybe this will remind people of the art of film making before we had budgets the size of Bill Gates business account and relied on special effects the size of World War Two. Go on ... just imagine.....