Finding Neverland

Maybe I'm a sucker for movies that carry-on the theme of the wonder and beauty of child-like belief and faith and hope (see my last year obsession with "In America") or maybe there's something that touches on the eternal when films capture so subtly what people spend their whole lives trying to understand. Whatever the reason, "Finding Neverland" does just this. One minute, you're watching a movie as an adult; the next, your overwelmed by faces of children, magic, and your own bewildered tears.

At one point while watching "Finding Neverland," I was crying and I had no reason why. I started thinking, "why am I crying at this point?" and kept thinking on it till' the movie ended and I think I may have figured out (partly) why. This movie deals with that pivotal moment in every person's life where their childhood is no more and they are, in fact, an adult. Call it growing up, growing older, or 'innocence lost,'...whatever/whichever way you put it, everyone eventually goes through it. I think when movies touch on such universal truths or rather, human circumstances and feelings, they touch on something much greater than the sum of their parts. "Garden State" did this with its exploration of 'home' and captured near-perfectly that odd transition between high school, college and age 30, where life seems to be staring straight back at you, asking you what to do next. Here, in "Finding Neverland," director Marc Forster (director of the brilliantly brutal "Monster's Ball) does something truly groundbreaking: he makes adults care about hope and wonder and belief, in a world where adults are taught to care about everything and anything else BUT these things. That's the kind of direction more film directors need a lot more of nowadays

So far this year, "Finding Neverland" is one of the year's 10 best films for many reasons, but I'll mention only one reason briefly for time sake: Johnny Depp. Depp gives another groundbreaking performance that proves he really is the most versatile actor working out there today. Sure it's less flashy and showy and funny than his work in "Pirates of the Carribean" but it's much harder to pull off what Depp does here so effortlessly. His simple, quiet, yet profoundly tender performance deserves Oscar recognition. on top of that, I can think of no other actor who could do what he does, and make a movie such as this come off as good as it does here.

So all in all, go see this movie---now. And I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.