Finding Neverland - My choice for 2004's Best Picture

Finding Neverland is loosely based on the real life story of J.M. Barrie, the author who wrote Peter Pan. This movie is sort of like a cross between Shakespeare in Love and The Neverending Story. Barrie was married at the time, but his wife was more interested in being a part of London's high society that anything else. As a result, Barrie spent a lot of time in the park working on his plays. While at the park one day, a woman and her four sons caught his attention. A friendship blossomed and the Llewelyn Davies family soon became the inspiration for the Peter Pan story.

As Barrie spends more time with the widow and her children, it draws some unwanted attention from the locals. They gossip about a married man spending his days with a widowed woman, and of course he draws some Michael Jackson-like speculation regarding him being around the four boys. The truth is that Barrie, who has no children of his own, is living vicariously through the youth of the boys. He truly understood the purity of childhood and wrote Peter Pan about a boy who never grows up. The real life Llewelyn Davies boys are quite different from the boys in the play. Their father recently passed away and their mother was terminally ill, so Barrie knows that their childhood will soon come to an abrupt and premature end. With his marriage soon ending and his close new friend quickly approaching death, Barrie used this sadness to fuel his imagination and create the fantasy world of Neverland.

Watching elements of Peter Pan come to life through the real life characters was an absolute delight. When their grandmother was scolding the boys while holding a coathanger, she turned into Captain Hook. In another scene Barrie sees the boys all jumping on their beds and gets the idea of them floating out the window. Barrie's own dog becomes the inspiration for Nanny. In many scenes in this film, the character's imagination becomes reality as the movie shows you what is going on in their heads as well as what the real location looks like. The effect is brilliant.

Director Marc Forster packed a lot of emotional punch into this tight 100-minute movie. This could easily have been a 2+ hour epic, but instead he kept it at a lesser length to appeal more toward a younger crowd. Everyone, young and old, can really appreciate this movie. I have always been a sucker for fantasy and fairy tales, and I loved this movie.

After watching this film, I was intrigued by the real people portrayed in it, so I did a little bit of research. In reality, there were five children, not four, and Mr. Llewelyn Davies was alive during all of this. In fact, he did not approve of Barrie spending so much time around the family. Not all of the boys got to grow up as I'm sure Barrie would have loved to see. One drowned and another was killed in action during the first World War. The real Peter committed suicide in 1960. Despite a few historical inaccuracies that were done for dramatic effect, this is still an excellent movie.

Johnny Depp is stellar as Barrie and his performance earned him another Academy Award nomination. In one scene he is playing pirates with the boys and it is very reminiscent of his work in Pirates of the Caribbean, for which he was also nominated for an Oscar. Kate Winslet is brilliant as Mrs. Llewelyn Davies and I was pleased to see her in yet another great role. Dustin Hoffman has an excellent supporting role as the theatre manager who doubted every aspect of the story until its opening night when it played to a packed house. Julie Christie is also excellent as Winslet's mother who does her best to keep Barrie out of the picture.

The real stars of this movie are the boys, especially the one who plays Peter. He is portrayed as a realist who thinks all make believe is silly and seems to be the one who most understands what is really happening to his mother. The actor's name is Freddie Highmore and he only has a few other movie credits to his name. Audiences will next see him on the big screen again with Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Willy Wonka remake called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Highmore is to play Charlie and Depp specifically requested that he play the role. This kid definitely has a bright future ahead of him.

Of the three Best Pictures nominees that I have so far seen, I choose Finding Neverland as my favorite for the best movie of 2004. I thought The Aviator was a little too boring and the situations and characters in Sideways were too unappealing. The ending for Million Dollar Baby was spoiled for me in another review and I am not all that interested in Ray, though I know Jaime Foxx will take the Best Actor award. Finding Neverland really moved me, and I truly hope it wins, even though it is the underdog contender.