Finding Neverland
In order for most children’s books to reach iconic status they must tap into something decidedly more adult. In novels like “Peter Pan and Wendy,” and more recently the Harry Potter books, behind the childishness and tomfoolery lies something darker. Harry Potter is not purely a struggle of good vs. evil but a battle of one’s own inner demons. Peter Pan is not merely a fanciful tale of a boy who’s found the fountain of youth but rather the angst of all adults, that no matter what we do time inevitably catches up with us.
It is therefore disappointing that the film, “Finding Neverland,” is so irredeemably polite. “Finding Neverland” is the story of Scottish playwright and novelist J. M. Barrie and the relationship he forges with Sylvia Davies and her four boys (there were five in real life). The boys become Barrie’s inspiration for his most enduring work “Peter Pan,” and the subsequent book “Peter Pan and Wendy.”
Mr. Barrie forges the friendship out of a desperate desire to display some affection in his largely affectionless life. He shares a home with his wife (played by Rahda Mitchell), but little else. He writes plays for a local theatre producer (played with particular reluctance by Dustin Hoffman), and spends his days in the park with his over sized dog.
The film for the most part is the equivalent of a cup of warm milk. Johnny Depp fails in his portrayal of J. M. Barrie because he fails to balance the whimsy and tragedy that was the Scottish playwright. In order to prevent from sacrificing the joviality of the piece director Marc Foster paints over certain unpleasantries, which were so much apart of play and it’s after math. Peter Davies, one of the subjects of the film, in his later days would call the play, “a terrible masterpiece.”
Whimsy, however, is “Finding Neverland’s” intention, but the film is so busy being polite, that it forgets it completely to sweep us away. Polite is the only way to describe Johnny Depp’s and Kate Winslet’s performances. Who are always competent thesbians, but historically much more energetic.
Freddie Highmore plays the young Peter Davies, and he all but high jacks the emotional climax from Mr. Depp. The innocence and whimsy that Mr. Highmore provides on a stage of a play he has written, and the devastation he provides when he later tears that same stage down is precisely the contradiction and emotional veracity the rest of the film lacks. Had Mr. Foster made the rest of the film as wonderfully balanced as Mr. Highmore, “Finding Neverland,” might have deserved something more then simply polite praise.