Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Still haven’t laid eyes on this one m’self, so I’m curious to read someone’s view who didn’t think it was the most transcendent and amazing thing to ever unspool on film:
I wasn't going to write about seeing Marc Forster's "Finding Neverland" but after reading the trio of orgasmic reviews last week, I felt compelled to add some clarifiers.
Firstly, this is a good film, a very good film. It is a tricky wicket attempting to shape a biography story with an artist-creating-a-famous-work-story. Most often it falls into either tabloid melodrama or a connect-the-dots game (Lewis Carroll new a girl named Alice, why that's a perfect name for a Disney character!). This film treads nicely between J.M. Barrie's life and him birthing the Peter Pan world. It completely refutes any inference that Barrie's interest in the children and mother is anything but that of friendship, which thankfully keeps the melodrama to a minimum.
Second: The performances are all quite nice, and the humanity and humour the kids, Johnny Depp, Winslet, Hoffman, and Christie bring to their roles often keep the film on track, where it could have veered off into sappy drama (pity the fate of any character who coughs halfway through a movie). The music, photography, production design are really quite good-never overwhelming and often elevating.
But point three is where I differ from most of the other contributors; the movie has virtually no value once you walk out of the theatre. It isn't particularly about anything. It's not about creating art, as there isn't really any struggle or frustration in creation (see Barton Fink, Topsy-Turvy). It isn't about the choice to be a parent (see Jerry Maguire), as mostly all of Depp's interaction with the kids involve playing make believe and finding clever ways to zip around these kid's pretty horrible lives, it doesn't delve too much into Barrie's pseudo-father role. And there is no GREAT scene, no particular image that sticks with you, that just makes you go: damn (something that elevated other entertaining, if thematically shallow, dramas like Shawshank Redemption and Scent of a Woman).
This movie is essentially as good as Big Fish and A Beautiful Mind, nothing more. Now many people enjoyed those films, thinking them great even. But I was disappointed in them, though entertained while viewing them. And the more distance I was from those movies, the more I wish they gave something more. There are REALLY interesting themes and character moments and side-stories that were brushed off to the side, and that's a shame, because that's what I end up dwelling on later, not how taken I was with the movie as it went.
So my advice is to go in expecting a good movie. You won't be disappointed, and though I suspect the Academy is going to fall in love with this movie the way they did Chicago, A Beautiful Mind, and Forrest Gump (though, perhaps it won't win); it's a piece of entertainment that could have been a lot more. This is a movie your Mom is going to think was the best picture this year and, there's nothing wrong with it, but it could have been a classic. Take your Mom and enjoy a very nice movie.
If you must, call me Slothrop.
A nice review. I’m sure it’ll be better to pitch my expectations low, and let the film’s merits creep up on me. Everyone last week seemed a wee bit hyperbolic about their joy, so thanks for writing in.
"Moriarty" out.
