Last year, I watched Two Brothers and fell in love with Freddie Highmore, the English answer to Haley Joel Osment. I soon learned he was set to star with Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a prospect that pleased me very much. But in the meantime, there was another film starring the two to watch out for: Finding Neverland.
I already was convinced of the superiority of the cast, but glowing
reviews from friends and critics and an NPR program in which an expert
on accents applauded Depp’s work in the film made me even more eager to
see it. As too often occurs, I missed it in the theater, but I was all
too happy to finally watch it when it came out on video.
I’ve always been a fan of Peter Pan – the general story if not every version
– but over the course of several years, particularly in college, my
information led me to believe that author J. M. Barrie was at best
deluded, at worst a pedophile, and probably both. When I first heard of
this movie, I thought it might be rather gritty and cynical. As it
turned out, it was just the opposite. I don’t know which account to
believe, but I certainly like this one better, and the idealist in me
embraces it.
Depp stars as Scotland native Barrie, and I must
say that he was awfully easy on the ear. I don’t mask my prejudices.
There are few things in this world more beautiful than a Scottish
accent. It’s the reason I fell in love with Billy Boyd;
it’s the reason I started watching Craig Ferguson after Letterman every
night. So even though Depp naturally has just a plain old American
accent, I forget that in an instant here. Flawless. But there’s more to
this performance than admirable command of a dialect. Depp portrays
Barrie as a man rather like Michael Jackson (ironic given the abundant
comparisons his role as Willy Wonka produced) but with none of the
creepy oddball associations. The people around him may make those
accusations, but we see him simply as a gentle man intimately in touch
with his inner child and unable to mold himself to the conventions of
polite society. Like John Denver,
his life’s work and his charitable causes are of greater concern to him
than his personal life, which has deep ramifications for his
relationship with his wife (Radha Mitchell).
In Barrie’s case, the “charitable cause” that consumes him and troubles his wife is the family of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet),
a recently widowed woman with a brood of four boys, three of whom (Joe
Prospero, Nick Roud, Luke Spill) are energetic and imaginative. The odd
one out is Peter (Highmore), who is deeply scarred by his father’s death
and has little use for the falderal Barrie happily trots out for the
boys’ benefit. Nonetheless, the author perseveres, encouraging Peter to
write his own stories. Meanwhile, he is so inspired by his afternoon
romps with the children that he recovers from a writing slump, writing
what is destined to be by far his most popular play, though his producer
(Dustin Hoffman)
is overcome with worry that this exceedingly strange piece of theater
will be a colossal flop. Hoffman remains an understated comic presence,
and I can only assume he was asked to assume the role as a nod to his
performance as Hook in the film of the same name. At the same time,
Sylvia’s stern mother (Julie Christie) shows increasing disapproval of
the playwright’s involvement with her daughter and grandchildren,
particularly once Sylvia begins to display signs of a serious illness.
The look of this film is magical, suffused with dappled sunlight that
almost invariably overpowers the shadows that linger on the periphery.
The visions of Neverland are especially bright, and for fans of the
story it’s exhilarating to feel as though we are watching the genesis of
these beloved characters and events. Perhaps my favorite such moment is
when Barrie observes the Davies children jumping on the bed and
imagines them continuing upwards instead of falling back upon the soft
mattress, flying out of the open window into a land where they will
never grow older and never change. As much as he tries to preserve their
innocence, he cannot shield them from harsh reality, but he can give
them a gift: the power of story, latent within each of them, to unlock
the magic so many weary souls have left behind and never attempted to
reclaim.
Top-notch acting, superior cinematography, a gentle
story and tender score all come together to create a masterpiece of
which all its participants can be proud. Peter flies high once again,
and he’s never before looked so much like one of us.
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