Caddickisms

Finding Neverland wasn’t boisterous, or exhuberantly full of wonder. It was, if anything, understated and simple in its execution. Despite the drama of a crumbling marriage, oppression, depression, and death, there were no histrionics, no yelling, no overwrought grief - these things were just facts of life to be dealt with. This was a movie where the actors checked their egos at the door and let the story be the star. And I think that is exactly why it worked so well.

Without sacrificing the reality of the situation, this movie managed to take you into one man’s imagination and remind you of the simple truth of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. As Dustin Hoffman put it in one of the included documentaries,

“Don’t grow up; never grow up. Be an adult, be mature, but don’t be a grown up.”

The story of Peter Pan itself focuses much more on the “Don’t grow up” part of that sentiment. Finding Neverland strikes a perfect balance of both sides of that coin. Johnny Depp does a superb job of playing an adult in turn-of-the-century English society, complete with the seriousness and reality that the role demands, and the importance of imagination in that man’s life. He was in no way childish, but rather infused the wisdom of playfulness into an adult world.

And he did a pretty convincing Scottish accent, too (not that I’m any expert).

This was a very mature movie. It’s a shame there aren’t many more like it.

Technorati Tags: Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, Neverland, movies, maturity, imagination, playfulness, Johnny Depp, Dustin Hoffman

Related posts

• Review: Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest (0)
• Review: Hero (0)
• Pseudo-Review: The Dark Knight (0)
• Summer Movie List 2 - Revenge of the Trailer (4)
• Review: X-Men 3: The Last Stand (0)

I’m a little hesitant to review this one, because it doesn’t feel like it would be fair to do so until I’ve seen part three and the end of the story. But I’ll put down my initial thoughts anyway.

This is a fun movie. I’m glad I went to see it in the theater, and I’ll definitely go see part three. The special & visual effects were great, especially for Davy Jones and his crew. Exceptional work there. Also had an engaging (if convoluted) plot, and the energy was pretty high throughout the film.

That said, I think it was longer than it needed to be. It seemed like it was trying to reach “epic” status, when “good story” would have done just fine. There was almost no point to the whole cannibals island scene, for example, other than to put the crew together with Orlando Bloom, which could have been accomplished in a shorter timeframe. The first piece with the Carribean “oracle” seemed a bit overblown, too.

Finally, the ending seemed a little flat. Obviously, things are not what they seem, and Jack will somehow escape. No surprise there. I did like the re-introduction of Geoffrey Rush, though they could use a little explanation there. I assume that will happen in the third movie.

One cool thing was the visual homages to the Pirates of the Carribean ride from which the movie is named. There are a couple scenes that incorporate pieces of the ride that were fun to see.

But as I said, the story isn’t finished, and this is decidedly not a stand-alone film, so it’s hard to give it a fair shake at this point. I’ll revisit it next year once I’ve seen PotC III.

Related posts

• Review: Finding Neverland (0)
• Summer Movie List 2 - Revenge of the Trailer (4)
• Review: X-Men 3: The Last Stand (0)
• Review: Wall-E (6)
• Review: Walk the Line (0)