Finding the Power of Imagination through the Schmaltz

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2004)

With just a bit of reining in the schmaltz "Finding Neverland" could have gone beyond a very good movie to an excellent film.
The film is at its best when, like "Topsy Turvy," it shows how an artist creates a beloved masterwork. Grounding the story in the theater helps us enter into James Barrie's head very effectively, such that it's just a small step for us to join him into the Imagi-Nation (as Kris Kringle called it in "Miracle on 34th Street").
It is much more convincing than "Big Fish" in showing us the power of the storyteller because it is related more to the joys of the child in all of us rather than the avoidance of maturity, though that's how other adult characters chide Barrie. I presume it is intentional that Barrie's real life seems so drab compared to his fantasies, but it is a bit stiff to watch.
The child actors are at their best when they are not miniature Edwardian adults but are rambunctious brothers like the no-necked monsters in "Desperate Housewives." It's a relief to see in film that not all upper class Britons were banished to strict boarding schools. While mildly dealing with rumors about the nature of Barrie's relationship with the mother and her children, David Magee's script is weakened when he has the younger boys talk preternaturally like adults, especially when it is solely for tear jerking effect. The oldest brother's gradual acceptance of adult responsibility is convincing, but Peter is just a shade short of annoying.
The biggest weakness in the film is the maudlin handling of the illness of Kate Winslet's character, which is as old-fashioned a decorous cinematic portrayal of consumption as Greta Garbo in "Camille." Could she not have at least been made up to look less radiantly healthy or did she only have Terminal Movie Starness?
Julie Christie and Radha Mitchell have thankless, one-dimensional roles, but make the most of what they're given to work with and only the former gets to prove she believes in fairies.