Quite dismal to say the least. Review on Finding Neverland Movie

The story of Peter Pan has been made and remade several times in movies (remember the absolutely awful casting of Robin Williams as Peter Pan?).

Finding Neverland is another take on the subject. It is a straightforward story of how Sir James Barrie created Peter Pan, and the family that inspired him to create the enchanting world of Neverland. In an era of cynical looks at favorite themes, Finding Neverland stays true to the spirit of the story of the boy who never grows. The movie has received wide appreciation for this, but is in fact the biggest weakness of the film.

The film is set in England of the early 1900s. The Scottish playwright, Barrie (Johnny Depp) is undergoing a crisis. His latest play has flopped. His promoter (Dustin Hoffman) needs another play fast to prevent huge losses. Barrie's marriage is also on the rocks. His wife, Mary (Radha Mitchell) and he have drifted apart and they find little to talk between them. It is in this setting that Barrie meets Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four boys in a park.

Barrie immediately befriends Sylvia and her family. Sylvia is a sick widow dependent on her mother to make her ends meet. Barrie wins over the kids, playing with them and narrating wild adventures and fictional worlds that would win over any child. He grows closer to Sylvia as well, though the relationship is not implied to be a sexual one. In fact, it is anything but sexual; Barrie has in him the boy who didn't want to grow up and lose his innocence.

The society slowly frowns on such a relationship. A married man spending most of his time with a widow and her four children is something that the English society didn't take too well. This also takes a toll on Barrie's marriage as well. Mary leaves him before his play makes its debut. Barrie overcomes all this and creates a classic that finally makes its debut and silences critics once and for all.

There is so much drama here that, if explored, could have made a wonderful script. Finding Neverland bypasses any issue that would intrigue adults, and focuses on Barrie's dream and the magic of Peter Pan.

The film has a single charter of showing Sir James as a person who was a child at heart. He is obsessed about childhood, and rues his lost innocence. He is in love with Sylvia and the kids and makes no effort to think twice about how the society accepts this kind of a relationship. He doesn't do much to maintain his marriage and is shown to be almost indifferent to his wife's feelings for him. This take on the character doesn't offer much scope to explore and reveal more of the character's psyche. As a result, the film is an eye-catching sugar-coated candy that falls far short of what it could have been.

We are in a society that is finding it hard to comprehend Michael Jackson stating that children regularly sleep in his room, but there are no sexual feelings involved. Wouldn't it be interesting to know how the English society would have reacted? The film is stoically silent; A friend of Barrie mentions in the passing that Barrie's relationship with the boys ''doesn't go too well and is quickly noticed'', but nothing more is said on the subject.

There were allegations that Barrie had sexual relationships with the Davies boys but nothing has been proven so far. The film even tries to bring in a romantic angle between Sylvia and Barrie to divert us from Barrie's relationship with the boys. In reality, Sylvia was not a widow when Barrie wrote his play! She was not a grief-stricken widow with whom Barrie was linked with. Then why was she shown as a widow in the film? Instead of tackling issues at the heart of the story, the society is shunned, a false romantic angle is introduced and the script falls flat.

The other major problem with the film is the woeful miscast of Johnny Depp as Sir James Barrie. This has to be the miscast of the year (Sigourney Weaver in 'The Village' comes to mind). Johnny Depp strangely seems to play his role after reading a Zen meditation book.

He is awkward; he doesn't have the playfulness in his scenes with the kids. He doesn't come across as a man who could conjure up and feel the Neverland in his heart, but as an unadventurous quiet writer. As a result, the long scenes of him playing with the kids don't live up.

Such a strange performance from an actor who is known for taking chances. The story called for a Peter Sellers or a restrained Jim Carrey, but Johnny Depp comes up short. The scene where Depp teaches the kids to fly a kite is a good example. Depp appears so wooden that his dialogues in the scene appear so clichéd and dumb.

The saving grace of the film is Kate Winslet as the ill mother of four. She turns in an assured performance. In a scene where she and Depp talk about Neverland, she seems to have bought into the concept and looks more intrigued than Depp himself! Radha Mitchell as the wife of Barrie has a stereotypical role. She keeps on sulking and finally comes around as the play is done.

Dustin Hoffman (whose caricature of Captain Hook in the Spielberg film would have made Sir James Barrie roll in hisgrave) doesn't have much to do. He carries it off with an undecipherable accent.

Julie Christie as Sylvia's mother plays the lone representative of the society, treating the man close to his daughter and her family with a curt and cold disposition.

Finding Neverland is a dismal failure, for it doesn't want to grow up as well. It tries to play it safe and ends up uninsightful and sappy.