THIS is a period movie, but not a typical British period movie. The director is Marc Forster, in his follow-up to the Oscar-winning Monster's Ball.
The central character, Scottish writer JM Barrie, is played by Hollywood chameleon Johnny Depp, who brings not only a passable Edinburgh burr to the role but also some of the inner darkness from his Tim Burton work (he is at present filming his latest Burton collaboration, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory).
Adapted from Allan Knee's stage play The Man Who Was Peter Pan, Finding Neverland depicts with sensitivity and a certain restraint the chaste relationship between Barrie, stuck in a stymied, barren marriage, and young widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet).
Although merely brushed over in Forster's film, Edwardian gossip had it that Barrie's interest in her five children was not entirely above board. There is no suggestion of a Michael Jackson figure here, but there is one link between the manchild pop genius and the childlike Scottish writer. Both are troubled by the passing of childhood: hence Peter Pan.
Barrie's latest play, The Admirable Crichton, has flopped; he has long neglected his marriage, instead seeking solace in his strolls through Kensington Gardens.
One afternoon, he encounters the picnicking Llewelyn Davies family, and a bond is struck up. One boy in particular fascinates Barrie, the melancholic, grief-struck Peter (Freddie Highmore): the source of Peter Pan. His grief chimes with Barrie whose own brother had died prematurely.
Barrie, spinning his stories and sticking spoons on his nose, becomes a frequent visitor to the consumptive Sylvia's home, much to the chagrin of her dismissive mother (Julie Christie). Here lies further fodder for the story of Peter Pan.
Barrie's creative muse is nurtured by his encounters with the children, and there is much pleasure in spotting how the jigsaw of Peter Pan came about piece by piece. It is, however, all a little too neat, hinting at deeper depths while showing just enough of why not everyone was enamoured by Barrie.
Forster's depiction of English days in parks and immaculate nights in the theatre is prone to being too perfect, too pristine, too chocolate box, but the flights of fantasy will delight and the performance of Highmore is remarkable, while radiant Winslet shows a restraint that is entirely in keeping with the period.
Depp, still looking impossibly young as if he is yet to grow up, plays the innocent with similar understatement, quiet and composed, intense beneath the playful surface. Yet again he finds another way to delve into a tortured soul.
Updated: 15:41 Thursday, October 28, 2004
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