An uplifting beauty.

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2008)

Some may call this epic tale of finding happiness in the most unexpected places to be too 'cheesy' or overly sentimental, but I'm inclined to disagree. In this day and age of modern cinema where every week there are three new films released that are gritty, hard-hitting and feature devastatingly pessimistic finales it's a wonder to find a film like Finding Neverland. Something so euphoric, uplifting and purely joyous. Especially when I've been hitting such a brutal case of depression, a film as optimistic as this was the perfect thing to get my mood in a state of happiness for the first time in as long as I can remember. Forster creates a fantastic fairy tale dream of one man's loneliness being cured by a wonderful family, who are full of their own flaws.
The story centers around playwright J.M. Barrie, played by Johnny Depp in the most perfect decision of his career, who is suffering a terrible case of mediocrity in his writing abilities. This lack of ability seems to stem from troubles at home where his wife Mary (the increasingly diverse Radha Mitchell) barely notices his existence and is far more focused on their social status than their marital one. In a wonderful meeting of chance, Barrie encounters the Llewelyn Davies family at the park one afternoon. This chance meeting turns into the luckiest experience of Mr. Barrie's life and also happens to be quite the blissful experience for the Davies' as well. We are then taken on a journey of watching J.M. burst out of his writer's block with the help of this beautifully imaginative family, and see that they needed his help just as much as he needed their's.
After a devastating loss of the families male lead, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (played masterfully by Kate Winslet) is left with four boys all to herself. Her slowly decreasing medical condition only makes matters worse and the film is filled with a constant state of approaching dread. Of course, since the film is perfectly magical, even as she passes on it's the beautiful imaginative hearts of Barrie and her four boys that help Sylvia leave this world in a complete state of happiness. With this wonderful relationship established between this family and this married man, we do get glimpses of the obvious tolls it takes on everyone's life. Barrie's marriage falls apart, he receives criticism from the community at large for the nature of his relationship with Sylvia and even the boys and Sylvia's mother constantly tries to bring the spirit of the family down. But it's the magic of these characters and this story that carry the picture on and keep joyous spirit alive.
Another interesting subplot to the film is the relationship between James and one of the Davies boys in particular, this boy being Peter (the inspiration for Barrie's title character Peter Pan, played by relative newcomer Freddie Highmore). Peter seems to be the one who struggles the most over the loss of his father and the addition of J.M. into the family life is one of painful sorrow and needed relief for him. He struggles with his feelings of James seemingly replacing his father and the lack of respect he gets from adults. This climaxes in a gut-wrenching scene as Peter destroys the faux-stage that the brother's set up in what is a brilliant display of acting from the young Highmore. Ultimately, Barrie takes Peter under his wing and teaches him the magic of imagination and appropriately helps him to find the infamous Neverland which represents the blissful place in your imagination where no harm can come to you.
I mentioned it before, but I would like to go back to Depp's fantastic and deservedly Oscar-nominated performance. The genius of Johnny Depp is clearly displayed in his decision to take this subtle and beautiful role after the eccentricity and wild charisma of playing Captain Jack Sparrow. His performance is very reserved, but this in no way makes it any lesser than his other work. In fact, I believe it to be one of the best portrayal's of his entire career and his best work of this decade so far. All of the performances in this sensational film are excellent (Winslet is another one to be remembered) but this truly is Johnny's show. A dynamic feat in what is now surprisingly one of my favorite films.