Finding Neverland review

Based on the award-winning play The Man Who Was Peter Pan, director Marc Forster's new film couldn't be further away from his last work, Monster's Ball, if it tried. This is whimsical stuff, an account of how the Scottish writer J.M. Barrie was inspired to conceive his most famous creation. With a starry cast and a perennially popular subject matter, it's a saccharine treat that is poised to do good business over the holiday period, but its unrelentingly cheery nature may prevent any Scrooges from appreciating its finer qualities.

Set in turn of the century Britain, the film begins on the opening night of playwright Barrie's (Johnny Depp) latest work. The reaction is mixed, and theatre owner Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) worries that his protégé's creative ink may be running dry. Barrie keeps an optimistic view, and his muse returns in the form of a young family of four fatherless boys and their mother Sylvia (Kate Winslet), whom he encounters during one of his daily trips to the park.

Barrie befriends the family and meets them regularly, impressing them with magic and ad hoc theatre shows. The boys adore him and there is a growing affection towards him from their mother, whose ill-health threatens the family's stability. Despite protests from his own wife (Radha Mitchell) and Sylvia's mother (Julie Christie), along with a well-judged and very 21st century comment about his growing proximity to the young boys, Barrie continues the relationship, eventually moving the family into his own spare cottage. His playlets for the children become more and more elaborate, and as his friendship with the young Peter (Freddie Highmore) grows, the rest, as they say, is history.

This is a gentle, rather old-fashioned film, where morals and values play a central role. The ending is never in doubt for a second, and dramatically most of the action proceeds at the same pace. Proceedings are enlivened by an excellent cast, led by Depp whose soft Scottish brogue gives him an unthreatening air, and his boyish antics with the children belie his 40 years. It's another excellent turn, although there is little in the way of a character arc for him: Barrie's life seems so cushy that it's hard to see him really getting worried about anything.

Fans of Barrie's work should of course lap it up and it is perfect entertainment for a family audience. Others may find the lack of drama frustrating, and may find fault in the fact that it is a largely fictional work - while Barrie certainly knew the family in question, there is no definite proof that they did inspire him to write Peter Pan. All in all it's a pleasant enough experience, without being an extraordinary one.