Finding Neverland
directed by Marc Forster

Butler went to a screening of “Finding Neverland” last summer in a 100-seat theater on an estate on Long Island . (I begin with this small, personal, of-no-great-interest-to-you fact not to emphasize how much I get around --- with a two-year-old in the house, any time Mrs. B and I go out, even for a pizza, is an Event --- but to warn you about this movie.) The audience was composed of Media Swells; if I told you the first names of half them, you could fill in the rest. These are not people who bare their souls in public. To say the least.

We all knew --- sort of knew --- what the movie was about: how J.M. Barrie met a widow and her sons, became close to the boys, and, in the course of becoming their playmate, came to write “Peter Pan.”

What we did not know is how it ends.

Butler encourages you not to spoil the movie for yourself by reading reviews and learning too much about the plot.

But Butler will give you one useful tip --- bring Kleenex.

Butler has seen public grief before, but nothing like what he witnessed in that super-rich screening room. It started shortly before the last scene, built as Johnny Depp delivered a magnificent soliloquy, and crested with the closing credits. The lights came on. And there they were: a hundred celebs, blubbering.

It's unavoidable. Depp, never less than superb, gives the performance of his career. Kate Winslet doesn't miss a note. Julie Christie, bravely showing her age, also demonstrates her uncanny ability to create a character in a few short lines of dialogue. Dustin Hoffman, ever the ham, is a delightful relief. And the boys --- ah, the boys are precious.

Butlers, being discreet, nonetheless may communicate a few choice tidbits, and in lieu of a critical take on the film, I offer these to you, just in case you gather yourself after and want to talk about the film with loved ones.

So….

l) Barrie's dedication (to the boys) begins: “ I suppose I always knew that I made Peter by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a flame. That is all Peter is – the spark I got from you.”

2) Barrie was 5 feet tall. He suffered from migraines and rarely smiled. His nickname: Wendy.

3) One of the sons died in World War I. Another drowned himself with his boy friend in Oxford a month before his 21st birthday. Another committed suicide in 1960.

But more than that --- no need. Except to urge you to see “Finding Neverland” at the earliest possible opportunity.

--- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com

Copyright 2004 by Head Butler Inc.