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Actors: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslett, Freddie Highmore
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Finding Neverland |
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James Matthew Barrie is a married English play-producer who is losing his audience due to the lack of their imagination. Mr. Barrie writes stories that require creative thinking to understand, which most others don't have. One day, as he is sitting in the park, fate brings him to a family that will later change his life. He meets the children of the family, which includes Peter, Jack, George, and Michael Davies. Then he is introduced to Sylvia Davies, the mother. As time passes, he becomes attached to this family, who, he finds, does not include a father. In the meantime, his own wife, Mary, feels betrayed by Barrie, as if he spends too much time with the Davies, and later leaves him. Influenced by the family, he writes a play called "Peter Pan", which becomes a masterpiece. As Sylvia's health is endangered, the boys mature and become responsible. As Barrie spends most of his days with the Davies, he teaches them of imagination, growing up, and responsibility, and a make-believe paradise called Neverland, as they teach him about life as well.
--Negeen F., Resident Scholar
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In 1903, playwright J.M. Barrie's (Depp) latest play is a flop and his marriage to Mary Ansell Barrie (Radha Mitchell) has gone frosty. One day in the park he meets a family of four young boys and their widowed mother, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Winslet). Inspired by the liveliness and imagination of the boys, and the beauty of their mother, Barrie spends increasing amounts of time at their home, which creates general gossip and unease with both Mary and the boys' unsympathetic grandmother, Mrs. Emma du Maurier (Christie).
His play with the boys -- and the uneasy resistance of the youngest, Peter (Highmore) drives Barrie to compose a new play called "Peter Pan." Despite his producer-agent's doubts (he's played by Dustin Hoffman), the new play is a great success. Barrie's joy in that success and his friendship with the family is dampened by the collapse of his marriage and Sylvia's growing illness. This 2004 movie is a paean to the magic of imagination.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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A famous playwright seeking new inspiration after a flop, meets a family struggling with death and poverty. The playwright has a sterile marriage, which may or may not be due to his sexual inadequacy, while the family has three sparky, spunky boys and a beautiful mother, struggling to cope with widowhood and the domineering nature of her own mother. All this is set against the backdrop of the stiflingly uptight society of early twentieth century England, where appearance is everything, and true feelings hidden.
The playwright is James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, which is one of the most widely produced stage plays of all time, a classic children's book and even a saccharine Disney movie. The story, based loosely on fact, follows Barrie's meeting with the boys who will become the inspiration for Peter, Michael and John. He becomes their friend, they call him Uncle Jim, and both they and their mother soon find Uncle Jim an indispensible part of their lives as they struggle to cope with the death of their beloved father/husband. He teaches them to use their imaginations to escape the limitations of their life, to escape to Neverland. But Grandma is a control freak, and worried that this unsuitable and unseemly realtionship with a married man will ruin her daughter's chances of remarrying, which was really her only option in the world she inhabited in 1903.
But the mother herself may be sick. And who needs who most? Do the boys need a friend, does the mother need a lover, or does Barrie need inspiration for his most successful play, as his marriage sinks without trace?
--Maggie, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Finding Neverland |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1900-1920's
Romance/Love/Hugging
Yes
Kind of romance:
- romance (general)
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Job:
- writer
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- writer
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- caring
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) long wavey
Body type
- (woman) average
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 60's-90's
Profession/status:
- not employed but independently wealthy
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Hair type
- (woman) long wavey
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
City?
Yes
City:
- London
Misc setting
- theater
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Any profanity?
- None
Is this movie based on a
- play
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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