Sensitive, brilliant movie

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2004)

Johnny Depp is one of those actors about whom there appears to be no middle ground. Folks either dislike him intensely or can't wait to get in to see his films. I must confess that since I fall into that latter category. I've not seen a film with him that I've not liked since Edward Scissorhands.
This one is no exception. It's just damn, fine theater. Peter Pan, the metaphor of the refusal of the adult to leave childhood behind,is in us all.
In this simple child's play, with its mixture of stereotyped characters, Indians, pirates, middle-class Englishmen, children and fairy creatures, you bounce from one archetype to another like a steel ball in a pinball game. So profound is this mythic journey, the man behind it all is completely forgotten. Enter Depp. Supported by a superb cast, exquisite scenery and a delightful script, we get a glimpse of that lonely Scott in his turn of the century sojourn. The story is great: a creative man, introspective and solitary, in a marriage with someone with quite different values, motives and ambitions, he wanders into a relationship with a family of grieving boys and their ailing mother, Blanchett, and becomes not only part of their world but conspires with them to help build his universe of fanciful imaginative invention. The story is a love story, albeit very restrained in a post-Victorian world and constrained by his own moral code. The romance is wrought with sentiment but never descends to the sentimental; his relationship with the boys bespeaks Barrie's own lost youth and touches on his loneliness and isolation. Christie as Blancett's powerhouse mother is always beautiful and wonderfully controlling. The four boys are delightful with serious little Peter capturing our hearts. The wonderful Dustin Hoffman is great as the man who had the faith in Barrie to give him the freedom to let the Peter Pan in all of us, fly away, out the window into the freedom of the Neverland of our imaginations.