Barrie (Johnny Depp) is a successful young playwright but his latest play flops badly. The theater is forced to close while he comes up with a new play, one that badly needs to be a hit. While on a regular trip to the park with his shaggy leviathan of a dog Porthos, Barrie meets the Davies family. Sylvia Davies (Kate Winslet) is a recent widow with four children. The youngest (Freddie Highmore) is very withdrawn as a result. Barrie charms them with his endless imagination, childlike manner and of course, Porthos. In no time, Barrie becomes a fixture in the Davies household. This doesn't sit well with Mrs. Barrie (Radha Mitchell), a social climber who married the famous playwright for the fame and fortune. But the marriage is a cold one. Little did she know that he spent the majority of his time living in his own imagination. She is offended by his whimsical nature and that he hasn't invited her into his imagination. The Davies boys however move right in and make themselves at home.
Obviously, James Barrie walks out of sync with the rest of society. Actually, he barely notices it. He has to be informed that his relationship with the Davies makes him and them the focus of nasty gossip. The ramifications of that are lost him as well and Sylvia's mother, Emma du Maurier (Julie Christie) has to bring that to his attention as well. All this offends him, as he is only concerned with the mental well being of the boys. The rest floats by unnoticed. James is as concerned with the approval of society as the boys, which is to say not at all. He can't fathom his wife's jealousy, as he has no sexual designs on Sylvia. For that matter, he doesn't seem to have them for his own wife. Sex simply doesn't seem to enter his consciousness at any point.
The movie is also about what influences a great work. Little elements of Peter Pan appear in Barrie's life. You can see how a kite inspired the creation of Tinkerbell. The notion of believing enough to be able to fly and the inspiration for Captain Hook show up in life as well. These are little moments that don't draw much attention to themselves. They just exist as quick flashes of inspiration that he draws out into something grander. We can see that for James, the line between reality and fantasy is blurred heavily. He slides back and forth, seemingly without noticing. He's like an adult version of the comic strip character Calvin. Like Pan, he refuses to grow up and play by the rules, preferring to live in a fantasy world and have adventures.
Johnny Depp has hit his stride as an actor of late, marshalling his considerable talent to bring a remarkable range of characters into perfect fascinating focus. His string of great performances in Pirates of the Caribbean, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Secret Window is continued with Finding Neverland. While not as flashy as those quirky roles, this one is every bit as strong. What makes him great is an ability to used his entire body, face, voice and accent in perfect concert to build a character apart from the dialogue and action. It is very rare that a big star can make us forget about their past roles while we watch the current one. Depp does just that here. The only moment in this movie where I think about who he is occurs early when he first speaks. It is momentarily jarring to hear a Scottish accent coming out of him but the feeling fades quickly. Kate Winslett hits just the perfect pitch as Sylvia but with a considerably smaller and more muted role. She has to delicately convey strength while being very vulnerable. She plays a single mother of four without income in a world not designed for such a family. The way Winslet lets her keep her dignity, even in the face of her mother's domineering personality, makes a somewhat underwritten role come alive.
This movie is a weepy puller of heartstrings. It does this flagrantly and without remorse but it never does so by cheap manipulation. When the movie ends, there isn't a dry eye in the house. The beauty is that no one has to feel guilty about it later. The movie earns its tears by being quietly respectful of the characters and their story. That pretty much sums up the movie. It tells the story of a fairly remarkable man who left behind a remarkably popular story that hints at who he was. It is an extraordinarily rare movie that doesn't treat the writer as a target of abuse, letting him actually be the hero. Even if he is a little weird.
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