Finding Neverland
Directed by: Marc Forster
Written by: David Magee (adapted from The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Alan Knee)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Freddie Highmore, Radha Mitchell, Dustin Hoffman
Country: UK/USA
Rating: Four and a half handfuls of fairy dust.
Irony: Peter Pan (the play) Casts a Long Shadow.
There are arguably three dangers with bio-pics: keeping the melodramatic dogs at bay; getting the ‘truth' right about the renowned subjects; and, the hardest of all, showing why they were children of their time which influenced them in doing what they did.
Finding Neverland falls down in varying degrees on each point and still manages to be a wonderful film, perhaps because the melodrama is kept in check with splashes of cold reality; the ‘truth' is mostly right; and, the message—that we forget our imaginations at the expense of our humanity—is timeless. The fact that the movie is subversive, much like the play in its time (more on this later), moves it toward greatness.
Findling Neverland is about two short years in the life of James M. Barrie when he conceived and wrote Peter Pan (1903-04), the classic childhood tale about the boy from Neverland who casts no shadow, and its other memorable characters like Wendy, Nana, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee and a deadly alligator who fortunately swallows a ticking clock. Thankfully, we don't see much of these characters—for instance, Captain Hook isn't even mentioned—because we already know the story. It's Barrie we're interested in. A well-known playwright on the London stage, his last play was a bomb. He needed inspiration to put him back on top. Lucky for him and us he meets the Llewelyn Davies family, a widow with four boys after whom Peter Pan is modeled.
Director Marc Forster has used his head and his heart, to shoot a wonderful looking entertainment with bite. (It's quite different in subject matter from his last acclaimed, but flawed work, Monster's Ball.) The settings here are lush, but the camera work economical. We have time to ‘feel' every scene. The shots of Kensington Gardens (with Hyde Park and Speaker's Corner in the far background) are evocative of a genteel age and if you haven't been there, make you feel you have. And if the narrative is not rushed, it's as kinetic as, say, Peter Pan, as we are continually surprised with intelligent scene shifts and dialogue. I liked the little, occasional transition between scenes that might nail the time and place, (e.g., a biscuit being stirred in a floral china cup), or serve as a simple foreshadowing of events, (e.g., a penny stamp stuck on the ceiling, fluttering to the floor).
This is a film of relationships and perhaps this is where Neverland plays with the truth. Present day members of the Llewelyn Davies clan are reportedly scandalized by the suggestion Barrie and Sylvia Davies were in love. Unfortunately, Barrie's ‘love' for Sylvia, dramatically unrequited as it is, serves as the spine of the story (due in part to superb performances by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet). It would be less of a film without this dynamic. Barrie's deep affection for the family and for Peter, a boy who disdains childhood, is mostly accurately recorded.
Depp does something not tried since Marlon Brando in The Godfather—he talks above a bare whisper for the entire film but portrays strength of character (and in a passable Scottish brogue, as well). His performance should be noteworthy when awards season rolls around. Kate Winslet, as the consumptive Sylvia, never overplays her hand. Julie Christie (who can remember the sex-kitten in Darling or her trying to fellate Warren Beatty under the dinner table in Shampoo?) is staunch as Sylvia's protective mother. (It's true. The English, with that upbringing in the theatre, can do any role.) Radha Mitchell as Barrie's lonely wife (all writers, male or female, can appreciate this storyline) is, well, great. Freddie Highmore plays the tough Peter closely with fine direction from Forster. Dustin Hoffman plays the hard put-upon theatre producer who supports Barrie above his better judgment. Hoffman (who played Captain Hook in a live-action Peter Pan) is so comfortable to watch and adept at his job.
Oh, yes, the subversions, as promised. The turn of the 20th century saw the end of the Victorian era, where children were not only not to be heard, but were to go largely unseen, as well. And they were to grow up and fit in. Peter Pan, three years into Edwardian times, was breaking those hard and fast rules. A play for adults and children, it was the antithesis of how to treat children and to allow adults to regain some measure of a childhood lost. It gave a society in transition, something to believe in.
Finding Neverland, now, today, evokes a time when people used their imaginations to create pleasure and perhaps meaning in their lives. There wasn't a cell phone, GameBoy or PlayStation in sight. That's subversive by today's standards. It was wonderful. |
