A leap to Neverland

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2016)

Finding Neverland is a slight but charming film about the wonders of imagination in the stuffy Edwardian era England.
Johnny Depp plays the softly spoken in a Scots accent, J M Barrie who has just come off a failed play.
Barrie has a strained marriage but a chance meeting with a recent widow (Kate Winslet) and her four young boys inspires his imaginations and whimsy as he becomes involved in their lives causing further stress in his own marriage.
The children inspires the story of Peter Pan as we go to and from reality and fantasy. However adults are always the sore point. Barrie's producer and financier (Dustin Hoffman) thinks little of this strange play with red Indians, fairy lights, an overgrown dog, a ticking crocodile and just thinks he will lose more money. Julie Christie as Winslet's frosty mother is wary of Barrie and think he is a disruptive influence.
Marc Forster directs with aplomb and makes good use of visual trickery and gets enchanting and solid performances from his young actors such as Freddie Highmore.
However it is a slight story, semi fictionalised and also wastes some of its actors. Dustin Hoffman who appeared in Steven Spielberg's Hook is wasted and just disappears from the film. Once Winslet falls ill you can guess where this is heading and gets a little too sentimental.
The film is heightened by a restrained and gentle performance by Depp.