FINDING NEVERLAND

3 STARS – POWERFUL

            Understanding the private lives of our artists enriches our understanding of their work.  This is true of the biographical study of the playwright Sir James Matthew Barrie who created “Peter Pan.”  Coping with the loss of his mother as a small child, Barrie had to grow up too soon, and so he created a fantasy place he called “Neverland” where a child “never” had to grow up.

            Although the film only claims to be based on actual events, the value it provides in weaving together a possible personal life of Barrie (Johnny Depp) with the incident that not only changed his life but also provided the muse for his best known work is itself powerful drama.

The moment of change occurred after Barrie had experienced a failure in one of his plays.  Brooding over his failure, Barrie goes to a London park to be inspired.  There he happens upon a family of four boys who had lost their father and are being raised by their single mother, Sylvia Davies (Kate Winslet).  Struggling to find their way without a father and husband, each member of the family is dealing with grief in their own unique way.  The most troubled is a sensitive third child named Peter (Freddie Highmore) who will not join in the “play” of his siblings.

Recognizing himself in this young boy and longing for companionship due to the marital trouble he is experiencing with his wife Mary (Radha Mitchell), Barrie joins in with the rag-tag group and engages them in imaginary play.  It is this play that unlocks both their grief and his own heart as his creative abilities find a way to express the depth of their feelings.

This is often the nature of the creative process.  Often flowing more from our pain than our pleasure, the creative angst reaches deep into our universal sorrows and touches us in ways that heal and unite us.  Whether we put our feelings to paper in therapy or display them for all to see in our artistic work, the effect is the same.  However, when we allow others to share our creation, they too are often healed.

As Barrie experiences the ticking of time and its inevitable journey toward death, he walks with the boys through a summer which quickly and completely bonds them into a family.  The fact that he is married and this causes a scandal in their community seems to make his imaginary solution even more powerful.  This, however, is where the tale gives its most powerful lessons.

Having been unable to unlock her husband’s inner heart, Mary finds herself on the outside looking in.  Diligently supporting his work while turning to the affairs of society, Mary and Barrie live separate inner lives.  When Mary sees Barrie open his heart to Sylvia and her sons, her jealousy is not that of grieving the loss of their marriage, for both recognized that had been starved of life long ago.  But, her jealousy was in never being able to go with Barrie to those inner places of his imagination that created his work, which she came to know as “Neverland.”  Instead, Barrie takes Sylvia.

Each of our inner lives is unlocked by those whose key fits our pain.  It is not that we want to keep others out, it is just that only those who recognize the door and know how to open it get in.  It is this sharing of inner life which creates bonds that can only be described as spiritual - bonds that go to places so deep within us that we can only describe them as places of the heart which define our souls.  Barrie created a language to describe such a place in “Neverland.”

 

DISCUSSION:

1.       The creation of a fantasy place to which Barrie could flee whenever he needed is sometimes considered a form of mental illness.  Do you believe this to be a sign of mental health or mental illness?  Where do you flee when life overwhelms you?

2.       The power of the imagination is so strong that we can have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction.  When Barrie becomes a part of the Davies family, Sylvia suggests that it is a fantasy.  Do you believe his being a part of the Davies family is fact or fiction?  How do you know the difference?

3.       When Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) suggests that critics have made a “play” serious business, he infers that this spoiled the experience.  Do you find this to be true?  Does thinking “critically” about a play or film change the nature of the experience?  If so, is it changed for good or for ill?

4.       In the end, do you believe Barrie and Mary were ever able to go to Neverland together as husband and wife after Sylvia helped Barrie unlock the door of his heart?  If you see them getting back together, would the boys be a blessing to their union or a burden?

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Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary.  Hal Conklin is a former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. For more reviews: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.