Finding Neverland
Composite Score: 84.47
Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Mitchell, Dustin Hoffman, Freddie Highmore, Joe Prospero, Nick Roud, Luke Spill, and Mackenzie Cook
Director: Marc Forster
Writer: David Magee
Genres: Biography, Drama, Family
MPAA Rating: PG for mild thematic elements and brief language
Box Office: $116.65 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Finding Neverland is the film adaptation of Allan Knee’s play The Man Who Was Peter Pan, based loosely on the life of playwright/author J. M. Barrie and the inspiration behind his work Peter Pan. The film stars Johnny Depp in the role of James Matthew Barrie, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, Kate Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the widow whose family inspires Barrie to write his new play, Freddie Highmore, Joe Prospero, Nick Roud, and Luke Spill as Sylvia’s four sons, Julie Christie as Sylvia’s mother Emma du Maurier, and Radha Mitchell as Barrie’s wife Mary Ansell Barrie. In addition to Depp’s nomination, the film was nominated for six other Oscars including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and a win for Best Original Score. The film’s blend of fantasy and biography, its strong production design, and a deeply emotional climax continue to earn it acclaim.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
I hesitate to critique any film for being too feel-good or crowd-pleasing or sappy, particularly one with so tragic a story at its heart, but in many ways, Finding Neverland feels like a film made to elicit an emotional response from its audience and not much else. Most of the actual narrative of the film fictionalizes the facts of Barrie’s life and inspirations; the themes of the film deal mostly in the simple realms of growing up and encouraging one’s inner child, and the film itself doesn’t leave you with much challenge or thought so much as it does emotion. In a lot of ways, this film feels like a sadder, less musical, better acted Greatest Showman, which is not a terrible film, but it’s also by no means the gold standard in Hollywood filmmaking (no matter what suburban white families told you when it lost to Coco for Best Original Song that year). The film’s technical aspects and embrace of its own fictional nature elevate it above that status to some extent, but Finding Neverland probably isn’t standing up next to The Godfather or Schindler’s List for a reason.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Finding Neverland is at its best in its thematically poignant moments, those times when the worlds of Barrie’s imagination become known to the people around him – dancing with his dog in the park (but calling it a bear), fighting cowboys in an old west town (but it’s really just the boys’ backyard), reserving twenty-five seats at Peter Pan’s opening night and giving them away to the local orphanage, and the film’s culmination in a performance that blends stagecraft with fantasy and reality at the Davies’ home. All of these moments capture the magic of its story so well and invite the audience to join in with Barrie’s fantasy, accomplishing the story’s goal of embracing our inner child. These scenes also give the characters plenty of room to play, particularly giving Depp and Highmore moments to shine.
Besides Depp’s leading performance, which certainly deserved recognition for the depth and authenticity that he brought to the famous literary figure, Kate Winslet and Freddie Highmore stand out from the crowd, lending emotional weight and some seriousness to a film that could easily have slipped into the ridiculous without their presence. Winslet holds down the role of ailing widowed mother admirably, playing Sylvia always as the concerned parent and never as the flirtatious mistress that so many want to portray her as in the film. She adds weight to Depp’s portrayal of Barrie by offering him a listening ear who can actually engage with him emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually, bringing so much more to the film. Highmore plays Sylvia’s second-youngest son, Peter, who seems not to have fully processed his father’s death by the time that James comes into their lives. Peter has the most acting to do of the four sons, and Highmore (then not even thirteen) showcases his range of feelings in a way that evokes not just sympathy but empathy for the child. His is the moment that brings the film to its cathartic conclusion, as he finally develops back into the child that his mother feared had been lost.
Solidly acted, well-designed, and appropriately whimsical, Finding Neverland achieves greatness through its array of emotional beats, interesting blend of history and fantasy, and a cast that has fully committed to the film’s story. It might stray at times toward an overreliance on emotional payoffs, but overall, the film feels and looks great. It is currently available to rent on most streaming services for anyone interested in checking it out.
