FILM REVIEW

FINDING NEVERLAND
Starring Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, and Dustin Hoffman
Directed by Mark Forster

Entertainment
Art

Maybe you share this pet peeve: I just wish parents would pay some attention to movie trailers, advertising, and ratings. Sure, “Finding Neverland” is a biopic about Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie; and sure, it features many scenes from his classic play; and sure, there are kids in the cast - but this is not a children’s movie. I hope the coughing, fidgeting toddler who sat behind me gets to see it when he’s older and can understand it, for this is a film about grieving and about complicated relationships, set in 1903 London, a time when manners were important and when live theatre was magical to an audience.

The film begins with opening night of one of J.M. Barrie’s (Johnny Depp) plays, “Little Mary.” American producer Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) gladhands patrons as they enter the theatre, and later promises the cast they’ll stay on payroll after the show closes much too early. The pressure’s on for Barrie to follow this flop with something big, but he mystifies Frohman (and the troop of actors) when he begins crafting a tale of a boy who won’t grow up that includes pirates, Indians, fairies, and a crocodile with a clock ticking in its stomach.

After a chance meeting in the park where the playwright often sits to write, Barrie virtually adopts the cultured, but widowed and financially struggling Sylvia Llewellyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four boys. Three of the boys (and their mother) are enchanted by Barrie’s tall tales and whimsy, but Peter (Freddie Highmore), who has taken the death of their father a year earlier the hardest, becomes the focus of Barrie the man and of his new play. After Sylvia’s controlling mother (Julie Christie) enters the picture amid society rumors that Barrie might be behaving inappropriately, he sets them up in his summer country cottage, so that he can visit the family and act out his stories with the boys.

The film frequently shows Barrie and the boys in homemade costumes, then changes the surroundings, not so they’re real (as most Hollywood action or fantasy films would do), but so they’re somewhere between reality and the stage. These games are the inspiration for the play, which proves an immediate hit with audiences by the end of the movie. And while this story element is certainly romantic, director Marc Forster never stoops to emphasizing any attraction between Mr. Barrie and Mrs. Davies – in fact, it’s believable by the end that their friendship is completely platonic, despite the jealousy of Barrie’s wife Mary (Radha Mitchell).

Forster uses bright colors and behind the scenes winches and pulleys to show the process of creating the stage magic necessary for “Peter Pan,” especially a scene where an actor asks Barrie if his costume is too small. Barrie tells the tailor it’s actually too big and that he should sew a board into the jacket to keep the actor standing straight. The tailor’s deadpan response is typical of the many moments in this film that work to perfection. Also wonderful is a short speech by Mrs. Snow, an avid elderly fan of Barrie’s plays, in which she praises the crocodile motif in the play. “Time is chasing after all of us,” she says. Among the terrific faces and voices from the acting company, Angus Barnett stands out playing Nana, the sheepdog that tucks the children in.

Hoffman has fun with his role, as when Barrie asks if they can get some teeth for the actor playing the dog and Hoffman/Frohman replies, “He can have mine.” Christie, while not allowed to be so frivolous, convinces with her speeches to Barrie about the effect his choices are having on Sylvia and her children. Winslet is angelic in a surprisingly non-sexy role and Depp shows once again why he is an actor to be reckoned with. His smooth Scottish-but-English-educated accent and sensuous vulnerability allow him to take over many scenes without even uttering a word. Also terrific is Mitchell, who garners the audience’s sincere sympathy as Barrie’s estranged wife, from what could have been a thankless part.

Ultimately, this is a gentle film about how theatrical magic was once created and about the different levels of friendship the world allows or does not allow. Some children even as young as 6 or 7 will understand a lot of it, but adults will get the most out of it.