return void;

so we recieved “finding neverland” from netflix earlier this week. friday night, crystal and i decided to sit down and watch it (after much house cleaning). so the following is my review of “finding neverland” (starring johnny depp and kate winslet).

having heard very few things about this movie, i was somewhat expecting something in the tune of “hook” (starring robbin williams). we found it couldn’t have been further from that movie.

the story is about JM Barrie, a famous playwright. the movie begins with his reaction to a less than steller play, that he had written, on opening night. he then goes to the park for some inspiration for another play and meets a family who becomes just that.

[spoiler]

Barrie finds out that the woman and her three boys are living alone after her husband died of cancer. Barrie helps to foster the children’s imagination and soon becomes almost a part of the family. the children become the inspiration for his latest play, peter pan. Barrie’s wife and most of the public becomes sceptic of Barrie’s relationship to the family and his wife actually leaves him in the end.

the boys (peter and his older brother) quickly mature once they learn that their mother has a life-threatening illness. the play becomes a huge success but the mother dies shortly after its opening. just before she passed away, she was able to see his vision of “neverland” from his childhood.

[/spoiler]

all in all, the movie was slow but well acted. johnny depp once again managed to actually become the character he was playing, never allowing himself to become type-casted. the characters had little development, but the traits that were emphasized were heavy with emotion. the plot was fairly thin, but this did not prove to be a problem with the overall effect. the director made an extra effort to make the scenes look as photograpic as possibly. this is was a pretty decent movie and it’s a shame it recieved little to no press.

my rating (of 10): 7