Tagline
Unlock your imagination.
Plot
This is Peter Pan, but very different. It is the tale of its eccentric author J.M. Barrie, played by Depp, and the circumstances in which he wrote his well known story. It’s set in the early nineteen hundreds, Barrie and his wife have a distant marriage and it seems he neglects her living in his fantasy world and writing plays. Barrie suffers from writer’s block, which caused his last play to fail incredibly.
One day he takes his dog to the park for some inspiration and finds this in the beautiful widow Sylvia Davies (Winslet) and her four children. After the death of her husband, she is alone in running a household and raising their four young boys. It isn’t an easy life and the young ones are still suffering from their father’s death, but Barrie finds himself enormously attracted to this family which has everything that his lacks: love and children.
Barrie teaches the children how to cope with their sorrows their own way, by taking them to his imaginary and magical world -Neverland- which he created after his brother died and he felt he was the one to blame. While exploring Neverland more hardship is on its way for the Davies and for Barrie as his weird relationship with a widow raises questions with his wife Mary, the theatre owner (Hoffman) and the rest of the outside world.
Acting
Hail to the casting director of the film! Every part was played by the right actor or actress. Kate Winslet is one of my favourite actresses for playing serious parts and she played hers very convincingly in this film, though she is a little less believable than Depp. What really astonished me in this film was the performance of the four children. I was amazed by them. I mean, what can you expect from such youngsters?
Johnny Depp can never do wrong for me. I absolutely love his movies even when the story is crap, like Cry Baby. He is an amazing actor and knows how to select his roles. He plays the part of this quiet, eccentric play writer who lives in his own world brilliantly. Even though he treats Mrs. Barrie like crap you just have to love Barrie for his imagination and manner of dealing with the emotionally bruised Davies family.
Additional
This film is very special to me, because I saw it in Paris together with Imre in a movie theatre at the magical Champs Elysées. I love it when films are not just films, but actually make me feel something and this one did. From hating Barrie for some of his actions to loving him, from feeling for hurting kids to laughing with them and from trying to feel as courageous as Widow Davies until the bitter end; there probably isn’t any way to escape these feelings while enjoying this film. It made me cry both time I saw it.
Verdict: This is an emotional rollercoaster ride disguised as a film, which makes it one of my favourite movies of all time. Go see and bring some tissues. You’ll need them at the end.