WHO Magazine (Australia) January 10, 2005 Page 59

BOYS 'N THE HOOK

Story by Andiee Paviour

In Finding Neverland, Johnny Depp works his gentle magic as the man behind Peter Pan.

All things are possible in the life of the mind, especially in the imaginative minds of children. In Finding Neverland (PG, 1 hr 41 min), exhilarating mental landscapes parallel a far more sombre reality for Scottish author and playwright James Matthew Barrie (Johnny Depp), the creator of the perennially youthful Peter Pan.

David Magee's screenplay, based on a stage play by Allan Knee and inspired by circumstances in Barrie's life, shows the reticent writer as a man apart; restrained in his life in turn-of-the-century London yet sustained and liberated by his boyish visions of what could be. Unhappily married (to Radha Mitchell's distanced, frustrated Mary), Barrie finds the acceptance he craves in his friendship with fetching widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and her four young sons, one of whom (Freddie Highmore) will become the inspiration for the little boy who never grew up. Barrie beguiles the brothers with thrilling games (realised on film with a mix of CGI, animation and tricky camera tactics). And when tragedy befalls the family, his magical kingdom of Neverland is the greatest gift he can give them.

Under Marc (Monster's Ball) Forster's sympathetic direction, the performances are vital and intuitive, with Dustin Hoffman as theatrical impresario Charles Frohman and Julie Christie as Sylvia's haughty mother a double-barrelled casting coup. As the man whose soaring sense of wonderment transports everyone back to childhood, Depp's diffident, reflective grace is warmed and enlivened by Winslet's natural ebullience. The boisterous children are equally at ease, with a prickly Highmore striking an especially forceful note as a touchy yet perceptive Peter, who memorably notes that it's Barrie, not he, who is the real Peter Pan. A