Finding Neverland

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Every year brings something different to the world of film. Let's call 2004 the year of the biography, as it brought us movies about real-life celebrities and heroes like singing great Ray Charles ("Ray"), industrialist Howard Hughes ("The Aviator"), sex researcher Alfred Kinsey ("Kinsey"), hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina ("Hotel Rwanda"), and playwright J.M. Barrie ("Finding Neverland"), among others. Of the lot, it is Barrie who strikes me as the most enigmatic figure, and while "Finding Neverland" may not be the most powerful film of the bunch ("Hotel Rwanda" takes that honor), it is without a doubt the most touching.

Sir James M. Barrie (1860-1937) was, of course, the creator of the stage play "Peter Pan" (1904). Barrie was already an author of notable repute when he came to write "Peter Pan," having written several important works like "Quality Street" and "The Admirable Crichton"; but nothing quite prepared him or the world for the phenomenal success of "Pan." It ran for years on the English and American stage, continued as a Christmas tradition much like Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker," and was turned into numerous movies, cartoons, and television productions.

Adapted from the play "The Man Who Was Peter Pan" by Allan Knee, the movie "Finding Neverland" deals with the short period of Barrie's life preceding and during his writing of "Peter Pan," and explores some of the author's inspirations for penning it. Clearly, as both the title of the play and the movie suggest, the character of Peter Pan was based on the puzzling life of Barrie himself, a man who may have been more comfortable in the company of children than adults.

The movie stars Johnny Depp, who turns in another remarkable performance. Yet it's remarkable for its restraint; no gypsies, pirates, private eyes, or magical chocolate makers here. While the performance is so low-key it sheds little new light on Barrie's character, it's probably accurate inasmuch as so little is understood about the real man, anyway. What is known is that in 1897 he made the acquaintance of and formed an attachment to a woman, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four young sons: George (Nick Roud), Jack (Joe Prospero), Peter (Freddie Highmore), and Michael (Luke Spill). He then began entertaining them and himself with stories and games, whilst re-experiencing his own childhood with them, all the while to the distraction of his own wife, Mary Ansell Barrie (Radha Mitchell).

The fact that in real life Barrie was himself raised by a domineering mother, grew to less than 5'3" in height, and remained boyish in appearance throughout his life may have further contributed to the perception of his being an eternal child. Depp has the youthful good looks of the real Barrie, if not the short stature, and he presents us with a picture of a man who genuinely seems intrigued by the interests of young people. That his own marriage ended in divorce may be some indication of his less-than-perfect relationships with adults. Moreover, there was at the time, as there is in the movie, talk of his constant companionship with the Davies children being suspect, although to their dying day the surviving Davies boys maintained there was nothing improper or unseemly in their relationship. Barrie comes off in the movie, as in real life, a rather quiet, withdrawn man who simply found it sometimes easier to relate to young people than older ones. When near the end of the movie, young Peter says, "I'm not Peter Pan; he is," it's not only a sweetly heartbreaking moment, it's probably true.

Like most such biographical pieces, the film condenses and manipulates some of the facts of Barrie's life, but that's OK. A degree of poetic license is necessary to capture and maintain our attention. And things are close enough, in any case. During Barrie's association with Sylvia Davies in the movie, for instance, her husband is said to have already died of cancer of the jaw. The death is factual; what isn't is that the husband was quite alive during the whole relationship and didn't pass away until well after "Peter Pan" was produced. What's more, Barrie's wife, who is portrayed as lonely and withdrawn in the movie, with barely a mention that she was in real life a famous stage actress, divorced Barrie in 1910 after conducting a well-publicized affair. (In the movie the Barries are shown occupying separate bedrooms. Although it's implied that because of his work, he is neglecting her and she is avoiding him for it, word of the day suggested that Barrie was impotent, yet another possible symptom of the author's never "growing up.") Sylvia Davies died a few months after the Barries' divorce, some seven years after "Peter Pan" had opened. Her passing was followed by the deaths of two of her four sons, one a casualty of the First World War, the other a suicide at college. Needless to say, portraying these real-life events in the movie would have dampened the spirits of an otherwise charming story, and they were thankfully omitted.

Anyhow, the movie opens with Barrie in the dumps about the failure of a recent play and then quite by accident meeting Mrs. Davies and her boys in a London park. He strikes up a acquaintanceship with the family, which eventually leads to his visiting them often. Like every day. Barrie's lost childhood is re-awakened through the stories he writes for the boys and the games he plays with them; he helps out the mother and kids financially; and he uses his newly adopted family as a substitute for the loving family unit he presumably did not enjoy as a child and does not have with his wife. The situation eventually becomes the inspiration, the springboard, for his writing "Peter Pan," the imaginative story of the boy who never grew up, who stays young and carefree and happy forever.

Depp plays Barrie as a character almost too good to be true, a kind, gentle soul whose motivations in his relationships with the Davies family are depicted as purely honorable and mutually respectful, if somewhat confused on Barrie's part. Winslet, by comparison, is a tower of strength, pragmatism, and resolution. She knows exactly what she wants for herself and her family and directs all of her energies for their good.

The always radiant Julie Christie plays Mrs. Emma Du Maurier, the mother of Mrs. Davies, as a jealous, stern-faced wet blanket, continually reminding her daughter that allowing Barrie into the family circle is improper and will come of no good. In the movie, Barrie may have seen in her something of his own mother, and he uses her as a model for Captain Hook, the adult authority figure who is always trying to thwart youth, merriment, and reverie. The final character of importance (in addition to the children already mentioned) is Dustin Hoffman as theatrical producer Charles Frohman, Barrie's friend and backer, a man flustered and frustrated by Barrie's determination to base a play on fairies and pixie dust. Hoffman's role is small, but he brings to it a wry wit and a perplexed countenance.

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