| 'Kate Winslet, You Bitch!' - My Review of Finding Neverland January 23, 2005 |
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| So the story must start out with why I am just now going to see this movie and why. I couldn't wait for this movie to come out so I saved up my $5 for my 'you'll-never-catch-me-at-a-full-price-showing' matinee ticket, and planned to go see this movie the weekend it originally came out, on a Saturday, rather than my usual 'you'll-never-catch-me-going-to-the-movies-on-any-day-but-Sunday' routine, when lo and behold, "Select Cities" did not mean my city. Was I everso disappointed when my newspaper did not list Finding Neverland as, oh, SHOWING. Then I was doing this show for theatre and had no free time for forever, and then weeks fly by, and my mother is casually observing the newspaper and says, "Hey look Melissa, Finding Neverland is showing." "WHAT? WHEN? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? DANG IT!" However, by now I was entirely deprived of my previous $5. So for a while I had not time and money, then I went out of town for two weeks over the holidays. Then last week Elektra came out and so as not to "get behind" on that, I went to see it last weekend (I give it a B-) to support JJ (Jennifer Garner) cuz she's tha bomb even though she's dating Ben Affleck and she better not be pregnant with his baby cuz she's too good for him and I'm...reviewing Finding Neverland. Right. So after last Sunday, I was determined to save my lunch-money change this week to go see Finding Neverland. Why was I so bent on seeing this movie? "Because Johnny Depp is soooo hottt *giggle*" |
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| Or not. Turns out I absolutely adore Kate Winslet. And have since her Titanic days. I saw the true performance there, and have seen most of her movies in theatres ever since (Eternal Sunshine is amazing!) So it's off to the movies. The Mexican whom obviously descended from a rival high school commented on not tearing my ticket because I was wearing my high school letter jacket. Too bad I wasn't wearing my high school senior ring because it would have left a nice imprint on his face. Sitting now. In the theatre. All by my lonesome. Well, I am by my lonesome, and there were some other people, but I was quite content with my lonesome. I'd heard by word-of-mouth the end emotional result |
| to this movie and went into it with my mind set. But by the end of it I was crying. Dang it. Only two movies in the history of time have ever made me cry, the first was Baz' Lurhman's Romeo and Juliet, which is kind of absurd since everyone knows what happens, and the second...well I actually can't remember for the life of me which movie it was but it was fucking sad okay! I've cried tremendously over television episodes and Judah knows television finales...but those characters are characters you learn to love and grow attached to over years of watching them develop and grown and sleep around...I never cry in movies, so if an hour and forty-six minutes of these characters can make me cry, there's something there. I did okay for the longest time. My eyes were watery and the lump was there, but then at the end my darling beautiful Kate, my idol on the screen, just has this look on her face...this ultimate and masterful look and there I go. |
| Kudos Kate, for making me cry. Actually, no, crying is not cool, and that's why I say: "Kate Winslet, you bitch!" She did a great job. There are really no words, she always does wonderful in my opinion. And she is such a solid, realistic, and real person that seeing her on screen and knowing she is what she is is always a joy. Really, it is. The 9-year-old (at the time), Freddie Highmore, is actually a great actor. He's garnered all this acclaim from both critics and fellow actors at school. My favorite scene was the way he moved his hand when reading the intro to his play. Johnny Depp was also in it, if you didn't hear. He did absolutely magnificient and here's my definition of why: He played his character with such elegance and delicacy. He had a physically present air of lightness that just made him float on screen. He played the shy and bashful so well with his cheeks, and the kindness of a child with sheer grace. The fact that he all the while kept a straight face while both Kate and I were bawling, made me marvel at the man in him, the strong base that held it all together. |
| The story was incredible. I can't believe all that happened. Can you believe I've never seen or read any version of Peter Pan? This movie not only made me want to do that, but made me want to read J.M. Barrie's works, and biographies. However, it also made me not want to see Peter Pan. Depp in the film, as well as Highmore and the other boys, create this beautiful and meaningful story behind a story that everyone knows, even me, without having seen it. But seeing these actors develop Neverland makes you respect the whole thing much more majestically then thinking of it as a sad and franchised Disney animation. To these boys it is a real and wonderful place, to Barrie it is the most perfect and loving world that he longs for, and it makes me not want to watch any other deluded version of what has probably never been portrayed as such a beautiful work. With Depp, Winslet, and Highmore, in this film, not only do you find Neverland, you never, ever want to leave. My Rating: A Conclusion: Won't be quite the same on DVD, but still anticipating it with great haste. Not for the emotionally decrepid. And Johnny Depp is sooo hottt. |
| posted 23 january 2005 11:54 PM s#0039 |
| "If an hour and forty-six minutes of these characters can make me cry, |
| there's something there." |
| "In This film, not only do you find Neverland, |
| you never, ever want to leave." |