The first sniff I had of Finding Neverland being anything more than a cheesy chick flick came when, to my surprise, The National Board of Review gave it the Best Film of the Year award. Up until that point, I really hadn’t heard much buzz about it at all.
Beautiful, Awe Inspiring, Breath Taking… there are so many cliche’ words I could use in this review… but they’re all true. This film is a masterpiece. You can stop reading the review right there.
Set in London in 1904, the film follows J.M. Barrie’s creative journey to bring Peter Pan to life, from his first inspiration for the story up until the play’s premiere at the Duke of York’s Theatre – a night that will change not only Barrie’s own life, but the lives of everyone close to him.
Johnny Depp is… well… Johnny Depp. He is just remarkable in this movie! And to my surprise, Kate Winslet is almost just as good.
Depp is a playwrite who finds himself in a loveless marriage and in a bit of a slum in his writing until one day meeting Winslet, a widow, in the park with her 4 sons. The most surprising (and best) thing about this movie is that it didn’t go where I was expecting it to go… degrading into a love story. It focused more on the relationship between Depp and the 4 young boys and how they became his inspiration for Peter Pan. It is the relationship between these 5 characters that totally drives this film, and touches you deeply.
My favorite line from the film was uttered by Depp while Winslet was trying to get her sons to go to bed: “Little boys should never be sent to bed. In the morning they wake up one day older and soon they are grown up”. I kid you not I nearly cried. Shut up and pass me a beer.
Go see this film. Take your significant other with you and enjoy. Maybe you’ll discover Neverland yourself. And oh yes… this is the best film of the year (But I haven’t seen The Aviator Yet). I give it a 9/10.
