My best picture of the year

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2004)

This film is formulaic, predictable, and even downright sappy at many points. But it's fantastic.
A playwright who has the imagination of a child befriends a group of children and their *SPOILER* dying *SPOILER OVER* single mother and they inspire him to create his greatest play. It's almost exactly what one would expect from a film about the creator of Peter Pan--a film about the power and importance of imagination and loaded with fun. However, as opposed to the famous Pan, this work clearly sets out to show that there are boundaries to the use of the imagination. This film also turns out to be, despite or perhaps even partly because of the fun, heart-wrenching. I have never seen so sad a movie in my life.
The acting is what saves this from being a silly, sappy little movie, really, headed of course by the always-brilliant Kate Winslet, the overrated-but-excellent Johnny Depp, and the always-brilliant Dustin Hoffman. Depp plays his character with a surprisingly subtlety and understatement, hitting every note perfectly. Kate Winslet and Dustin Hoffman don't have much to work with, but the charisma of each makes the character far more interesting than either deserves to be. In a supporting role, Julie Christie also (again expectedly) performs excellently and makes her character more than she should have been (And hasn't she gotten an awful lot of work since retiring a decade ago?); so that while watching the film, one feels surrounded by fascinating characters who, upon further study, aren't so interesting--just wonderfully acted. The surprise of the movie was probably in the performance of Freddie Highmore, who gave one of the best child performances I have ever seen (right with Anton Yelchin in "Hearts in Atlantis" and Emma Watson in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban").
That said, the acting is not all this film has to offer. The direction by Marc Forster surpassed the excellent direction of his previous film, "Monster's Ball," which is no small feat, and made for an interesting watch, with his constant employment of visual trickery. He gives us some odd angles, some special effects where we don't expect them, and a number of other effects that hold the viewer's attention wonderfully, which may be necessary considering the somewhat flimsy story and overused themes.
In all, "Finding Neverland" is a fantastic emotional movie led by amazing acting and wonderful direction. Under close scrutiny, it almost comes across as a fraud, but with the emotional punch it packs, it doesn't need to provide any intellectual satisfaction to make a fantastic film.
I would also like to point out that, although I've heard people around town talking about it as though it's a somewhat dark portrait of a possible pedophile--it's not. Kids may even enjoy the film, because it's got a bit of a Disney feel to it and much of the interaction between the children and Barrie is very fun, so don't fear the film. I don't know how widespread this talk is, but I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on such a wonderful viewing experience due to misinformation.