Wonderful

Rating: 10/10 (6 November 2004)

Although this film is only based on the true story of J.M Barrie's friendship with the Llewellyn-Davis family (in reality the father was still alive when they met Mr. Barrie and later had a fifth son before succumbing to cancer), I loved the film nonetheless and was as easily seduced by the magic as the children in the film.
Johnny Depp gave a fantastic and restrained performance as the shy, soft-spoken Barrie who becomes a surrogate father for the Llewellyn-Davis family, much to the chagrin of his own social-climbing wife Mary, and just about everyone else in London society. Freddie Highmore, who plays the difficult Peter who mourns the loss of his father by growing up far too quickly, is a real talent who easily holds his own in scenes with Depp. In fact all four boys are convincing as Edwardian children who find themselves with a new playmate who can turn his dog into a bear simply by sharing his imagination.
While encouraging the real Peter to try his hand at writing about his brothers and their made-up adventures, Mr. Barrie find the inspiration to write about the boys himself, eventually creating what we would come to know as the play, "Peter Pan." Although the film states that Barrie himself is the true spirit of Peter Pan, in real life, the playwright said the character was an amalgam of all the Llewellyn-Davis boys rolled into one.
Kate Winslet plays the uncomplicated Sylvia Llewellyn-Davis who steadfastly stands by her friend Mr. Barrie no matter how much her mother (screen legend Julie Christie) complains. Miss Christie crackles on screen as the brittle society matron who's concerns for her daughter is overshadowed by her concern for what society thinks of this middle-aged man who plays with children all day.
In reality, there was more than just a little suggestion that Barrie was a closet pedofile and some point to a questionable line in one of his books where a character, a grown man, steels himself with liquor, announces to his young male charge that it is time for bed, and marvels at how it doesn't sound so dastardly when he says it. The Llewellyn-Davis boys who in real life became his adopted sons after Sylvia died of cancer, never alleged any wrong-doing however, and the film actually addresses the issue as a rumor that Barrie dismisses as, "sick."
Dustin Hoffman has some of the best lines in the whole film as Mr, Barrie's dry-witted, grumbling producer who has faith that this writer will create a hit play and even keeps his actors on salary as a show of faith after Barrie's latest play was a flop.
This fanciful, funny and tear-inducing film is, "just a bit of silliness," as young Peter might say. But as Mr, Barrie would reply, " Oh, I hope so."