Finding Neverland

Thanks to Images for allowing me to catch up with this final Oscar nominee, which turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, since I have no particular feeling for Peter Pan. It might have been just treacle and tearjerk, but I found this a well-made film from top to bottom, so credit to director Marc Forster, whose Monster’s Ball I found literally unwatchable. Is there anything Johnny Depp can’t do? From the first minute I felt him fit right into the skin of J.M. Barrie, from the gentle Scots burr to the warm and liquid attention he brings to children (not to go for the dismal modern diagnosis of pedophilia that the film eschews.) Paired with her nominated performance in Sunshine, this role as winsome but doomed widow and mother of four boys would make Kate Winslet a worthy winner of the “Best Actress” Oscar. And what a brilliant inspiration to cast Julie Christie as her mother! The whole cast is marvelous, right down to “Gareth” from The Office as an usher. The Edwardian theatrical milieu is well put on, even if the storyline evinces some anachronistic emotions. On the whole, I found this to be a worthy evocation of the power of imagination. (2004, Images, n.) *7+* (MC-67, RT-84.)