Movies to Consider: Finding Neverland

If there's one thing that's better than Johnny Depp in an attractive, sexy, active role a la Pirates of the Caribbean, it's when he plays something easygoing, charming, and nonsexual. Enter Finding Neverland.

This movie falls into the category of movies I can hardly stand to watch again because they're so good, so emotional, and so overwhelming. Just watching it is such an experience it's almost tiring. That's how amazing it is.

For those of you who don't know about this movie, Johnny Depp portrays James Barrie, the real life man who wrote the play Peter Pan, Or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which turned into the novel Peter and Wendy, which became all the movies and songs and musicals with those characters and storylines.

James Barrie was unhappily married to a woman who was very into society, very much wanted James to care about his image and money. James actually just wanted to continue writing plays, but write something whimsical, something for the children inside all of us. So when he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, and their mother Sylvia, it struck a chord and he found his inspiration for Peter Pan, Michael, John, Wendy, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook.

The movie shows how the play was written, and the impending sickness of Kate Winslet's character, Sylvia. It's magical, simple, and incredibly enjoyable.

It makes me think of when I was a kid, the games my sister and I would make up. We played sugar plum fairies in tutus and white tights. Hannah would be the waitress at a restaurant and I would order and pretend eat. We'd play safari with our various cats. We'd play Danger Woman and Damsel in Distress.

I also remember watching Peter Pan as a kid, at my grandparents' apartment in Murray. We'd sit on the futon eating Creamies, watching Peter taunt Captain Hook. Just last month Reilly and I watched Hook, laughing at the lines that we now get, because we're adults and when you're a kid, lawyer jokes aren't funny. We watched Peter Pan about a week later, and the memories kept flooding.

I can't wait to introduce Fin to the world of Peter Pan.

And if the movie doesn't quite do it for you, the bloopers should.