Finding Neverland: Do you believe?

As Gwynne will tell you, I am generally not one for inaccurate cinematic portrayals of literature. Nor am I enthralled with films that "take creative liberty" with the real situations or historical events that they claim to portray. However, in spite of the considerable liberties that Finding Neverland takes with actual events, I found it to be a wonderful movie.

At its core is the story behind the creation of J.M. Barrie's work Peter Pan. The original work was written, insofar as I can tell, after a summer of Barrie's gleaning inspiration from the children of the Llewellyn-Davies family in England. According to IMDB.com - all the research I've done prior to filing this review - after the death of their parents, the children were all adopted and raised by Barrie. Barrie and his wife had divorced, and the playwright had hoped to marry the children's mother... but was thwarted in his plans by the unfortunate and untimely death of Mrs. Llewellyn-Davies.

Don't you hate it when that happens?

At any rate, this film is an interpretation of what happened between the initial meeting of the family and the premiere of Peter Pan on the Duke of York's stage in central London. Johnny Depp, in a spectacular Scottish-accented performance is J.M. Barrie; Kate Winslet plays Sylvia; Dustin Hoffman also makes an appearance in a minor role as the theatre's manager/financial backer of Barrie. Radha Mitchell has the unenviable role of playing Mary Ansell Barrie, whom you wish to ask to lighten the heck up throughout the entire film. The Llewellyn-Davies boys are played by 4 little charmers - my favorites are Peter and George (respectively, Freddie Highmore and Nick Roud).

One of the best parts in the movie is how the fantasy and "reality" segments mesh and weave seamlessly in and out of each other. On the commentary, one of the commentators commented that it was pure genius to take the basic costumes that the characters were wearing at that particular scene and change them juuuuust slightly so as to ease the transition between the two versions of events. For example, Mrs. du Marnier, after the kite-flying scene, puts a coat on a wire hanger and gestures with it while leaning in close over the boys. Change to fantasy... this time, her purple dress has taken on an ascot and frilly lace cuffs, Mme du Marnier is wearing an eyepatch, and the coat hanger has changed to a hook on the end of her arm. Arrrrrr, mateys.

The attention to detail and to period arrangements are great, too. You'll note that the main characters often wear *gasp* the same clothing in several different scenes that take place on different days. Mary, for example, has a white and blue-embroidered dress that she wears on formal occasions; she wears a turquoise shift under a gauzy black housecoat-type thing at night for informal around-the-house-wear. This is a refreshing change from other movies in which the character never wears the same thing twice.

And the message is nice, too. In an age where kids grow up too quickly and the world seems to tell us to set aside foolish childhood beliefs once we pass 4 or 5 years old, it's great to see a film that emphasizes the philosophy behind Peter Pan - believing in our imagination and the passion we have for everything as children helps us stay young. The kite scenes and the impassioned living-room plea for Tinkerbell's life especially showcase this.

If you have the occasion, watch the outtakes. They are absolutely hilarious and include such moments as Dustin Hoffman breakin' it down with the usher, Johnny Depp utilizing an electronic whoopie cushion to elicit better responses from the children in the formal dinner scene, and Johnny Depp providing a running commentary on a dog doing its business.

A 4-out-of-5 movie for me.

Flightplan: Not necessarily as bad as you've heard

I went to see Flightplan with the French exchange student on Sunday. And, as the title suggests, I was pretty impressed. Because, really, how DO you lose a little girl on a huge jumbo jet? As one extra in the movie snorts, "It's a big tube." I was wondering about that as we sat down, and thought, Well, if the team can pull it off, all righty. If not... well, I had been warned.

Jodie Foster (Kyle Pratt) does a good job with showing derangement, which is a good thing. Otherwise, this would have been a difficult movie to sit through. She shows off her linguistic versatility once more (see my first post), speaking German at the very beginning of the movie. And her portrait of the mother/engineer-worried-sick-over-her-child is well played. I sure wouldn't want to be on a plane with someone like her.

The captain is played by Sean Bean, just the right mix of "DAMN, why do I always get the crazies?" and "Right, down to business. Follow procedure. I mean it. Otherwise you never fly with me again."

And, ah yes, the air marshal (Clayton) is played by Peter Sarsgaard. I can't really say anything about his character, for fear of spoiling the entire movie for you.

The flight attendants are, mercifully, unlike any flight attendant I've ever encountered. They form a pack of snarling, unbelieving hyenas, and are generally much like any Alpha Clique of females in your typical American high school.

So, let's get back to the plot. It gets pretty long and drawn out, especially when Kyle insists on the full search of the ENTIRE aircraft. Over. And over. And over. Then interrogates flight attendant after flight attendant, gets in the captain's face, and then goes after the flight attendants again. The fellow passengers are generally as annoying a mix as you generally get in economy class on an overseas flight, right down to the fighting pre-adolescent siblings. The Fat Mustachioed Man is pretty annoying, put there to help distract you and start the requisite rumble in any action movie that occurs in a VERY close space. And The Psychiatrist is so incredibly patronizing and, well, psychiatrist-y that you'll want to root for Kyle to turn around and say something like, "Your analysis has been so incredibly right-on.... *SMACK* (as Kyle smacks The Psychiatrist into a week from tomorrow)".

Just when you start checking your watch and thinking to yourself, "Okay, Captain, will you PLEASE take the plane down and make the crazy lady go away?", hang on. They're not done with you yet. There's a pretty ingenious plot twist that will leave you somewhat agog. Plan on spending the last 25 minutes of the movie approaching the edge of your seat.

The end is hurried, I feel - there's no real mass recognition by all of the passengers on the flight that, "Hey! Crazy Lady wasn't... crazy...", as I felt there should have been. Also, I thought it rather crass of the writers/directors/actors to accept having your standard "Let's put some people from the Middle East on the flight and feed into the audience's stereotypes a little bit" situation in the film.

So there ya go - that was Flightplan, and I'd give it... 2.5 stars out of 5. Not quite enough to merit saying, "Hey! I liked it! I really liked it!" and not enough to say "Ugh. Avoid it like the avian flu."

A Very Long Engagement

Ugh. Being the literary type that I am, I read this book for book club. After a brief period of reflection and confusion, I thought, well, I'll try the movie.

The usual mistake.

If you've read the book, this is a horrible adaptation. I mean, I suppose that to get it to fit into a 2-hour time frame, yes, you have to mangle the plot line as Jeunet did. But the problem started when Jean-Pierre Jeunet decided to make this an Amélieësque movie. He uses a faded sepia-tone color palette instead of the oversaturation from Amélie, and the story is different, but the effects and storytelling tricks remain much the same. The vignettes with individual characters explaining some of their little pecadillos, the still photos that actually have moving characters if you watch closely, Audrey Tautou, the same art team, the close-ups to get people's reaction shots... ugh.

The upside? Jodie Foster's in it. And her French is amazing. I mean, her French is absofrickinlutely amazing. So watch that scene. But only after reading the book.

Let the madness begin!

Waz up all,

What could possibly be a more fitting template than a black template? Sort of mimicks the blackness of a movie screen before the film starts, don't ya think?

Of the many blogs I have now created, this one has to do with...wait for it...wait for it...yes....you guessed....MOVIES! Shocking, I know. I sure of you at least one clutched your chest in shock for a moment before taking a deep breath and relaxing as there is an abundance of sarcasm in this post that I need not point out.

With that being said, blog away on movies!

-Gwynne