Continuing the Johhny Depp summer of love, I watched Finding Neverland on DVD with Andie tonight. It’s a testament to Depp’s acting chops that one moment he’s a loony dandy candymaker, then an imaginative playwright with a Scottish brogue, and you’re convinced in each case that he is who he plays.
For those among you ladies and gentlemen who deem Mr. Depp “mantastic,” you’ll find his role here easier to shoehorn into your naughty fantasies than his performance as Willy Wonka.
The story is based a bit on reality. After meeting the Davies family one sunny day in Kensington Gardens, writer J.M. Barrie befriends the boys, becoming their surrogate father, and writes a hit play based upon their literal flights of fantasy and of pirates, Indians and fairies: Peter Pan. It may have been the first play with so much of its action centered around special effects—when it debuted in 1904, it was one of the first that allowed the actors to “fly,” via an elaborate apparatus of pulleys and cords. In the film, Peter Pan’s audience gasps, astonished at what they see.
I enjoyed the way the movie cut seamlessly between reality and the fantasy world. A scene where Barrie and the boys are playing pirates, for example, is intercut between their playacting and their adventures on an actual pirate ship pitching about a stormy, surrealistic sea.
The film ends predictably with a tragedy, racking up further Chick Flick points with several weep-worthy scenes. Andie, for one, cried and said she liked the movie.