FILM REVIEW: FINDING NEVERLAND (2004)

Director: Marc Forster
Written By: Allan Knee, David Magee

Cast and Crew
Johnny Depp - Sir James Matthew Barrie
Kate Winslet - Sylvia Llewelyn Davies
Julie Christie - Mrs. Emma du Maurier
Radha Mitchell - Mary Ansell Barrie
Dustin Hoffman - Charles Frohman
Freddie Highmore - Peter Llewelyn Davies
Joe Prospero - Jack Llewelyn Davies
Nick Roud - George Llewelyn Davies
Luke Spill - Michael Llewelyn Davies
Ian Hart - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Kelly Macdonald - Peter Pan
Mackenzie Crook - Mr. Jaspers - Usher
Eileen Essel - Mrs. Snow
Jimmy Gardner - Mr. Snow
Oliver Fox - Gilbert Cannan

Rating: 8/10

This is a wispy film based on true facts surrounding the life of early 20th century Scottish playwright James Barrie (Johnny Depp). The movie begins with JM Barrie witnessing his recent work met with not much enthusiasm in the posh society of England. The Literary genius bored with old ideas is in much need of some inspiration. Surprisingly he finds that inspiration when he encounters the Lewelyn Davies family: four fatherless boys and their recently widowed mother while taking a walk in the London’s Kensington Gardens.

The esteemed writer befriends the family inspite of the disapproval of the steely grandmother and this wife. Barry engages the children in games of cowboys, red Indians, castels, pirates and castaways. From this will come Barrie’s greatest masterwork, Peter Pan.

The ultra-picky Depp captures the role of his character with superb precision. Barrie's growing fondness for a family away from his sterile marriage is ably captured by Depp's deep interpretation of a rather shallow social system. The highlight of the plot is the Barrie’s rapport with the widow Sylvia's (Kate Winslet) four sons and the constant hostility with Sylvia’s mother.

Though there isn't much emotions between Depp and Winslet, the bonding between Depp and the children, especially little Peter on whom the evergreen Peter Pan character is based is heart-warmingly tangible. You cannot get the last sequence out of your mind - in which Depp sits down with Peter in a verdant park on a bench to talk about Sylvia whom both of them loved. It's such a beautifully packaged moment of poignancy, you feel happy to be blissfully manipulated into sublime submission.

An overall good movie with a good ending which has a tragic twist of fate that will make the writer and those he love understand the true meaning of belief.

Credit: This review was submitted by Ankit Jain of NewzWatch. They run their own Movie Blog at DCECinemas.