Finding Neverland

In 1903 London, following the dismal reception of his latest play (the play is taken down after a few days of opening night), Little Mary, Barrie (Johnny Depp) meets the widowed Sylvia (Kate Winslet) and her four young sons (George (Nick Roud), Jack (Joe Prospero), Peter (Freddie Highmore) and Michael (Luke Spill)) in Kensington Gardens. A strong, close friendship develops among them. He proves to be a great playmate and surrogate father figure for the boys, and their imaginative antics (they imagine whole worlds and create characters and play them with conviction. Injuns and the westerners. Exploration of Africa in the backyard. kite flying) give him ideas which he incorporates into a play about boys who do not want to grow up, especially one named after troubled young Peter Llewelyn Davies. Barrie gifts Peter his first diary and encourages him to write stories coming out of his vivid imagination. Barrie is shown to be friends with Arthur Conan Doyle (Ian Hart). Barrie's wife Mary invites Sylvia, her kids and her mother to dinner. Barrie misses meals at home and suggests that they loan their own cook to Sylvia, as she is short of helping hands in her own house. Although Barrie sees this family as wonderful and inspirational, people question his relationship with the Llewelyn Davies family. Sylvia was a widow: her husband died from cancer and left her with four boys to bring up on her own. Arthur makes Barrie understand that people are questioning his relationship with Sylvia and even her boys. Barrie brushes them aside and takes Sylvia and her boys to his summer cottage for the summer. This is where the script for Peter Pan takes shape. Barrie's wife Mary (Radha Mitchell), who eventually divorces him (she started an affair with Gilbert Cannan (Oliver Fox). When Barrie tries to reconcile she demands that he return home at the end of the rehearsals and stop his forays into the countryside with Sylvia's family), and Sylvia's mother Emma Du Maurier (Julie Christie), object to the amount of time Barrie spends with the Llewelyn Davies family (a grown man spending so much time with the kids, and that Barrie is hurting any future prospects that Sylvia might have for settling down into a married life again). Emma also seeks to control her daughter and grandsons, especially as Sylvia becomes increasingly weak from an unidentified illness (which started at the summer cottage). Along the way, Barrie goes on adventures with Sylvia and her boys. He too is a boy at heart and spending time with the family is special. Barrie takes those adventures he has with the boys and makes them into a play called Peter Pan. Peter blames Barrie for Sylvia's illness. Producer Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) skeptically agrees to mount Peter Pan (The play demands a ship on stage, surrounded by huge amounts of water, which requires huge amount of money. But Barrie says that they can fake the water), despite his belief that it holds no appeal for upper-class theatergoers (doctors, lawyers, and so on with their wives). Barrie asks Charles to set aside 25 seats in the audience, scattered all over the place. George breaks his hand when Jack and Michael let go of the ropes helping him fly in the air (in the theatre). George insists that Sylvia undergoes medical examination, before he will allow the doctors to set his hand right. Barrie peppers the opening night audience with children from a nearby orphanage, and the adults present react to their infectious delight with an appreciation of their own. The play proves to be a huge success. Barrie is all set for his play, but when Peter arrives alone to the play (as Sylvia had a coughing fit and was in no position to attend), Barrie goes to Sylvia's house to check up on her and misses the show. Peter attends the play and realizes the play is about his brothers and Barrie. Mary attends the opening and realizes that Barrie could never have written anything like this, without Sylvia's family. She understands and apologizes to Barrie. Sylvia is too ill to attend the premiere, so Barrie arranges to have an abridged production of it performed in her home. He gets the actors, props and musicians together in the Llewelyn Davies house. At the end of the play, Peter Pan points to the back doors and implies that Sylvia should go off to Neverland. She takes the hands of her boys and slowly walks out into Neverland. The living room and back garden transform into Neverland and Sylvia continues to walk on her own. In the next scene, everyone is at Sylvia's funeral. Barrie discovers that her will says that he and her mother should look after the boys, an arrangement agreeable to both. The film ends with J. M. Barrie finding Peter on the bench in the park where they first met after Peter ran off from the graveyard. Peter is holding his book where he wrote the plays that he ripped apart and that his mother glued back together for him. Barrie sits down and puts his arm around Peter to comfort him. They both fade, and all that is left is the bench.