The movie details the experiences of 'Peter Pan' author J.M. Barrie, which lead him to write the children's classic. He got to know four children who have no fathers. Drawing from his time with the kids, he writes a story about children who don't want to grow up. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

“Finding Neverland” is really four movies in one, tied together so perfectly that we barely notice the movie machine switching between gears and emotions.

Each of the segments stars Johnny Depp as Sir James Matthew Barrie, the playwright who created the classic “Peter Pan,” and who, according to the movie, was inspired to write the work by a widow and her four boys who he came to love over the course of a year.

Although one should always be skeptical about movies that claim to be “inspired by actual events,” “Finding Neverland” is bursting with such affection, heartache and hope that it becomes the kind of story you want to be true, even if it seems a bit contrived.

It is one of the year’s surest crowd-pleasers.

The first, and most important story in the film is Barrie’s growing relationship with Sylvia Davies (Kate Winslet) and her sons: Jack, George, Michael and Peter (Freddie Highmore). A widow, sick and broke, Davies needs both companionship and financial support, but her closeness with the married Barrie soon infuriates her mother (Julie Christie), who sees Barrie as a distraction and an obstacle to finding that security. It is in Peter where Barrie is immediately intrigued, seeing a boy who wants to grow up too fast.

Refreshingly, director Marc Forster (“Monster’s Ball”) exposes the real conflicts this relationship caused in Barrie’s life. Another version of this story would attempt to smooth over these complexities and portray this as nothing but a tale of triumph and cheer. But in “Finding Neverland,” people gossip about Barrie’s closeness to this desperate woman, and these innocent boys, and his aloofness finally destroys his marriage to Mary (Radha Mitchell), which is actually a microcosm of the film’s greater theme - that Barrie’s naive imagination, much like Peter Pan’s, is out of step in a grown-up world.

Similarly, his position as a playwright is not depicted as romantic, but as daunting and constantly challenging. Always under the gun to sell tickets by his producer (Dustin Hoffman), and equally torn between producing sophisticated “theater” for the critics and making more light-hearted works that appeal to his inner sensibilities, Barrie’s “Peter Pan” marked the turning point for his career, when he made a vision that appealed to our inner child, rather than a work the sophisticates would deem sufficiently intellectual.

Unlike such portraits as this year’s “Alexander,” or “ Troy,” I prefer biopics that seek to convey the confusion of a person’s life. So often we are given dramas, romances and even thrillers that play by the rules and follow the tried-and-true guidelines of their genres. They are made to be easily-digestible and to not challenge the audience too much lest they become bored or fidgety.

“Finding Neverland,” to the contrary, is not the easiest film in the world to take in or explain because it tries to find and expose the dark corners of Barrie’s life that came to influence his work. In fact, “Neverland’s” biggest mistake might be trying to cover too much in too short a time. Seemingly committed to a paltry running time of 100 minutes, Forster often must short-change certain subplots so he can fit everything in.

To put it simply, “Neverland” works because these people, and their struggles, are genuinely engrossing and believable. Depp, in yet another striking performance, is perfect as the proper little boy trapped behind the proper bow tie. Winslet is the strong woman who refuses to admit that she is become weaker by the day. The young Highmore, as Peter, cannot be overlooked, as his compelling performance gives us the occasional wide-eyed, ecstatic counterpoint to Depp’s restraint.

Thanks to them, “Neverland” becomes a real world filled with real people, all happiest in Barrie’s world of the pretend.

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