Finding Neverland (Use your imagination)
Finding Neverland tells the wanderings of a writer and his relationship with the rest of the world. Scottish novelist and playwright, played by the brilliant actor Johnny Depp , does not want to grow up and writes the story of a boy who never does. The boy is Peter Pan, and the man is Sir J.M. Barrie. That is basicly the stuff Finding Neverland thrives on. This is a wonderful, hypnotic film, overloaded with fantasy and colors patiently and wisely shooted by the director Marc Foster (Monster's Ball ).
The plot develops in London and opens in 1903 in a Londoner theater where Barrie, a Scottish playwright, quite acquaintanced but without very much prestige, has seen his latest play turn into a disaster. He needs something new, and quickly, because his producer and friend Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman ) has a lease on the house and needs to keep it filled.
Barrie is married to a beautiful woman but her interests differ from those of Barrie. He, man of good position, dedicates his time to resting and writing in the park, waiting for new ideas for new works. His world of dream (full of colors, Indians and plants) does not coincide at all with the life he actually lives. His wife realizes this and is getting so fed up because Barrie lives in a different universe.
In Kensington Gardens, Barrie happens upon the Davies family: the mother, Sylvia (Kate Winslet ), and her boys Peter, George, Jack and Michael. As he watches them at play, a kind of spiritual hunger begins to glow in his eyes. They represent the innocence and the purity that strikes him so powerfully. He becomes friendly with the family. He plays games with the boys, dresses in funy costumes
Barrie is one more of the children. The children rapidly take fondness for Barrie. Accessing to Barrie's world is not easy for a common adult, but kids do not have many difficulties in finding the door of entry.
The story is simple and surrounding, reported with the just pace and a very elegant visual attractive aesthetics. Every section offers its dose of beauty in the just moment, at the time that a new image starts supplanting harmoniously the previous one. Interaction between the story, the principal character and his new friends makes the film so amusing. Besides, beyond the narrative and visual stimuli, the movie leads us to perceive the permanent tension among the thin limits between reality and fantasy, fiction and not fiction, the childhood and the adult life. Is it possible to be a child forever? What does it mean? Is the adulthood incompatible with the childhood in the same person? Up to what point fantasy and reality can coexist?
Barrie is embodied by Johnny Depp, looking fresh-faced and well scrubbed and nowhere colose to his actual age of 40. For Depp, Finding Neverland is the latest in an extraordinary series of performances: Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), Secret Widow (2004)
Marc Forrester says he was looking for something magical, a break from the gloomy tragedy of his last film, Monters Ball, and for the most part he succeds. He mixes fantasy and reality, and turns the film relentlessly optimistic, even when tragedy strides, which is seen as yet another opportunity for imagination to win the day. Barrie only believes in the power of the imagination, a place where he will be allowed to be a child forever.
Whereas Finding Neverland is surprisingly moving, never attempts anything risky. It is by turns tender, humorous, and touching, but it never attempts anythig that would elevate it to the next level. This is solid but unspectacular entertainment, and most who see it will leave theaters satisfied, although not overwhelmed. It works on an emotional and, to a lesser degree, intellectual level.
Amaia Markuleta