Yaaaaaaaaawn!! Finding Boringland.......

Rating: 2/10 (10 June 2005)

I watched this film last night and can not figure out, for the life of me, what all the "hype" is about. Yes, we all love Johnny Depp, and many will say the same about Kate Winslet as well. However, not even these two talented performers can save this "clunker" from being the dreadful bore that it is.
J.M. Barrie (Depp) is a London playwright in 1903. While writing in the park as he often does, he happens to stumble across Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Winslet) and her four children. Immediately taking a liking to them, he begins a relationship with the troop, which in return, gives him the inspiration to write "Peter Pan".
First of all, does anyone really care? The character of J.M. Barrie for a full length feature film, just doesn't hold up. What is the surprise that a writer, while running around with 4 boys all day playing Cowboys and Indians, wouldn't start to get some kind of creative juice flowing? Doesn't take a genius to figure that out!! I found it very odd that J.M. Barrie was a married man, yet he spent all his free time running around with a widows children that aren't even his own? Barrie never even develops a romance with Davies, he simply plays with her kids all day long. Yet he refuses to introduce his wife to the family, nor involve her in any of his imaginative "play dates". It's almost as if he is having a love affair with these children, but not with their mother. If someone were to do that by today's standards, people would be in an uproar.
I side with Davies mother Mrs. Emma du Maurier (Julie Christie), who thinks the whole ordeal is outlandish, and that Barrie should back off, letting Davies (a widow) and the children, move on with their life. After all, he is a married & successful playwright, with a life of his own. Of course, the children have become completely attached to Barrie, not realizing that when his writing is all said and done, the relationship with Barrie is more than likely to dissipate.
Well, that's not what happens, due to the fact that Davies has a secret illness (the cause never revealed) that will eventually take her own life. She starts out with a little cough here and there, then suddenly becomes too weak to leave the house and then....well you can guess the rest. It all happens rather quickly, without even a good explanation to the cause of her illness in the first place.
Summed up in a nutshell: Man meets kids, man plays with kids, man enjoys spending time with surrogate family more than own wife, man writes play, wife leaves husband, play becomes timeless classic, children's' mother dies, man gets joint custody of kids.
ZZZZZZZZZZZ!! I found the entire movie to be pretty boring. A romance with Winslet is never developed, although at times it is hinted that Depp has really fallen for her. However, they never even kiss in the film, so it is all speculation really. The children in the film are like any children by todays standards; creative, spunky and full of energy. One is named Peter, and of course, Peter and Barrie have the strongest bond with each other.
I feel that despite the two talented leads, this movie has nothing to offer really. The relationship amongst all the characters is presented in incomplete fashion throughout the entire film.
The story of J.M. Barrie's creative inspiration for writing Peter Pan is really not that interesting, entertaining, or moving enough to sit through for 106 minutes.
I balk at the fact this movie was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture and would suggest anyone interested in this dribble just pick up a copy of "Peter Pan" (written or filmed) instead! The story of Peter Pan is far more interesting than the story of the man who wrote it.