Review #2

"Finding Neverland"

Director: Marc Forster.
Cast: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Freddie Highmore, Radha Mitchell, Julie Christie, Dustin Hoffman.

Synopsis:
This film tells us about Scottish playwriter J. M. Barrie, the author of the legendary "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Never Grew Up" and his close friendship with a poor family, Mrs. Sylvia Davies and her sons. Trying to restrain a sense of a great disappointment after failure of his play, Mr. Barrie walks in the garden where he meets the Davieses. Sinse then Barrie gets attached to this family and begins to spend a lot of time with Mrs. Davies's sons. Being in a very bad state of health, Mrs. Davies has to bring up her four sons alone almost with no support, as her husband died. The appearence of Mr. Barrie changes this family's life, especially the life of one of four sons, a little Peter, who shrunk into his shell after his farther's death. Having no care about social norms of high society that Barrie belongs to, about gossip and his friends'disapprovals, and even about his own reputation of a decent married man, Mr. Barrie does his best for this family. Barrie becomes for the boys who needed father someone more and he will never leave them whatever happens...

Review:
"Finding Neverland" is a very beautiful, kind and touching film. A simple plot, amazing and beautiful scenes when the main character begins to imagine, lots of funny moments and the famous children's fairy tale about Peter Pen makes the impression that this movie is rather fo children. But it's not exactly so. This film possesses a very deep sense and it allows to watch it in the family circle.

This film is not exactly about love, happiness, kindness. But certainly these human qualities are praised in this film. This film is about childhood, but it is interpreted like a beautiful place where love, happiness and kindness reign. This film is about life, life that never ends. Childhood is the "Neverland" where time goes forever, where life has no end and where there is no death - the main reason of unhappiness. Children fly away like Petrer Pan in this "Neverland" in order to stop the time, never grow up and never grow old that means never die.

Mr. Barrie was a man who created such Neverland for Mrs. Davies' children. Death took away their father and now it is going to take their mother. Mr. Barrie understood this inevitability and realized that children can't bear it again. He understood it because he himself experienced the death of his brother when he was a child. He knew how difficult it is to overcome the consequences of death: his mother after his brother's death also almost died and Barrie did his best in order to bring his mother back to life. Mr. Barrie life stoped at this moment and he stayed a child forever. That's why he understood Sylvia's sons and that's why he wanted to help them to overcome it. He wrote the play about a boy who never grew up that we know as Peter Pan and  devoted it to these poor children. This play became that fairyland for them which helped to accept their mother's death steadfastly.

The cast of movie is wonderful. A duet of such world-renowned and very talented actors as Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet was perfect. Their performance was undoubtedly brilliant. Speaking about young actors, I'd like to distinguish Freddie Highmore. I think his role is psychologically difficult. Highmore's character is a child who faces a great injustice of life and he has to accept this injustice in spite of his too fragile child's psyche. But he doesn't want to accept it and therefore he protests. And this protest is expressed in his spite and unbelief to adults. As for me, Freddie managed this role perfectly. The last scene when Highmore's character finally cries makes viewers also cry.

To sum up, "Fnding Neverland" is worth to watch at least because of its atmosphere of infinite kindness. Unfortunatelly today there are so few really kind movies. People need kindness. And this particular film is a chance to get it.