J.M. Barrie gets Disneyized (*SPOILERS*)

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2004)

I finally saw this movie yesterday, after nearly a year of waiting on tenterhooks for it to come out. I went into the theatre with 3 mindsets: Watching for entertainment value, for film-making value, and for historical (in)accuracy.
And I am sad to report that I was quite disappointed on all 3 fronts. :-P
There's not much left to say about the historical inaccuracies. They do make it clear before the "action" begins by flashing a big "Inspired By True Events" disclaimer up on the screen. But those "true events" are quite few and far between. Yes, there was a Scottish bloke named J.M. Barrie who wrote 'Peter Pan'. Yes, he knew a woman named Sylvia and her sons. Yes, he was married to a woman named Mary who later left him. That's about as accurate as this film gets. If I list all the events in this film as compared to what REALLY happened, we'll be here all day. But perhaps it was more of a handicap on my part to be so infinitely familiar with Barrie's life story, which is why I tried to relegate that stuff to my subconscious as much as possible.
The issues of entertainment value and film-making kinda go hand-in-hand. On the whole, this film was verrrryyyy awkwardly and slowly paced and disjointed. It was even downright BORING in several spots. It was as if this film did not know what it was trying to say, and therefore I had no idea what it was trying to say either! Was it an homage to a great writer and his genius? Or was it an homage to the spirit of Peter Pan and Neverland? It was neither, sadly. It was mass confusion, is what it was.
One of the biggest Rule-of-Thumbs which they teach you in theatre and film is this: If you introduce a convention, you MUST stick with it and be consistent! 'FN' introduced a convention of trying to blend fantasy with real life, but it did not quite work and it was not utilized enough to make it convincing. It seemed almost hacky. It was not until the end when I saw the movie become what I had so hoped for it -----
Because Sylvia is sick and missed opening night of 'Peter Pan', JMB (who had promised to take her to Neverland one day) brings 'Peter Pan' to her  installing some crude set pieces and actors from the actual show into her drawing room. After Peter Pan stands before the Davies family and entreats of them to clap for Tinker Bell (which they do, of course), the back wall behind Peter lifts away and reveals a fantastic Neverlandscape before them all, filled with fairies, Indians, pirates, and all sorts of animals prancing merrily about. JMB leans in toward Sylvia's ear and whispers 'That is Neverland.' At this point, you are not sure whether this is real (that JMB has somehow turned the Davies front yard into a fantasy playground) or if it is all in their imagination; that JMB has at last led them all to 'find Neverland.' THIS is what the WHOLE movie should have been, IMO. As an homage to both Barrie and the spirit of Peter Pan, the movie would have been so much more effective if it had blurred the lines between fantasy and reality much, much more (something Barrie was brilliant at doing). Yes, there are the few scenes where Barrie is playing with the boys and we are treated to a mish-mash of jump cuts from Real Life and the Fantasy World they have created, but these interludes were (a) too few, and (b) not effective in the way they kept reminding you that it was NOT real. That's not only an insult to the audience's intelligence, but it also isn't HALF as fun! ;-)
As far as the acting goes, I will be frank ---- screw Johnny Depp, and screw Kate Winslet and all the others....Freddie Highmore (Peter Davies) is the ONLY one who should be getting Oscar buzz. This little kid was PHENOMENAL!! He blew all those other 'veterans' completely out of the water. It's worth it to see the film just for him alone.
It was also perhaps to my disadvantage (although I don't like to think of it so) that the day before seeing 'FN', I had watched the entire 3 parts of the 1978 BBC miniseries 'The Lost Boys', another JMB biopic where Barrie is played by Ian Holm and based on Andrew Birkin's biography of him. And I tell ya, this film was the book brought to life EXACTLY! Everything was Excruciatingly accurate, and the actors all embodied their characters so perfectly that I really thought I was watching a documentary! And after it was all over, I thought to myself 'How can I POSSIBLY go and watch 'Finding Neverland' now??' LOL! Well, I did anyway, and IMO, 'TLB' was lightyears more superior to 'FN' in every way. If you have the means to get your hands on this series, PLEASE DO! It is to 'Finding Neverland' what P.J. Hogan's 'Peter Pan' is to Disney's 'Peter Pan'! ;-D