Finding Neverland (Johnny Depp)

(Amazon UK link)

We wanted to watch something that was about an hour and a half long, which we hadn’t seen for a while. ‘Finding Neverland’ was in the to-watch drawer, where it’s been for a couple of years. We hadn’t seen it since 2008, and had almost entirely forgotten it. I knew it was about the writing of the classic ‘Peter Pan’, but didn’t recall anything about the story.

While there are, inevitably, some deviations from the true story, the gist of it is as it happened. JM Barrie (brilliantly portrayed by Johnny Depp, although apparently JM Barrie was considerably shorter) is not having much success with his plays. He goes for a walk in the park, and comes across a young family with their mother. Apparently in real life he met just the oldest two sons; in the film he meets all four sons, and their mother Sylvia (Kate Winslett).

Barrie had an emotionally stunted childhood, after his older brother was killed in an accident; this comes through in the film, as does his feeling of never having grown up. He likes to entertain the children, and becomes very fond of them in a paternal kind of way. In the actual story, Sylvia’s husband was still alive; in the film, she has recently been widowed and is struggling to cope with four very lively children.

I felt quite sorry for Barrie's wife Mary (Radha Mitchell) who wants him to spend more time with her. She supports him in his writing and looks after him, but he is rarely home, and doesn’t seem to have much in common with her. So it’s no surprise that she becomes friendly with another man, as her husband becomes friendlier (in an entirely innocent way) with Sylvia and her sons.

There’s a nice mix of reality and fantasy; the boys play all kinds of imaginary games, with pirates, native Americans, and sharks; as he watches - and often joins in - Barrie gets ideas for a new, different play featuring children and a boy who never grows up. He names him after one of the boys, Peter, but Peter Pan is really a mixture of all the boys.

Dustin Hoffman deserves an enthusiastic mention as Barrie’s sponsor and producer Charles. The two have a close friendship, and there’s some wry humour in their interchanges. Hoffman’s expressions and reactions are excellent; very realistic and with perfect timing. And while all four of the boys are good, Freddie Highmore as Peter is superb. Apparently he so impressed the cast, and Johnny Depp in particular, that Depp recommended him for ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ which was made a year later.

Johnny Depp is believable as Barry; both he and Kate Winslet show their versatility in this, a rather different kind of film for both of them. Their chemistry, in a mostly platonic way, is good, and the sad scenes towards the end brought a tear to my eye more than once.

With this all-star cast, and a great script, it’s not surprising that we were gripped from the start, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing this film again. Even knowing that Peter Pan would become a classic, it was tense waiting for the first night, not knowing how the audience would react.

The rating is PG, which reflects the lack of violence, intimacy and bad language; there are one or two minor words that are barely noticeable, and a broken arm is the worst of the violence. However, being PG rather than U acknowledges the sad, potentially traumatic scene towards the end. The film is unlikely to appeal to young children anyway; I’m not sure I would want to show it to a sensitive 12-year-old, although the subject matter would be of interest to anyone who has enjoyed the book or film of ‘Peter Pan’.

With that caveat, I would recommend this very highly.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Jane Eyre (Sorcha Cusack)

(Amazon UK link)

Back when I was a teenager, my class at school studied the classic book ‘Jane Eyre' in English Literature. There was a new BBC mini-series broadcast at the same time, based on the book, starring Sorcha Cusack and Michael Jayston. I watched it avidly and developed quite a crush on Michael Jayston. I hoped, for years afterwards, that it would be repeated.

So I was extremely pleased when I discovered, back in 2006, that this series had been published on DVD. I watched it in 2007 with my husband and teenage son, one episode at a time, and we all liked it very much. My husband had not read the book, although he had at some point seen a different adaptation. My son, like me, had read and enjoyed the book, and we all thought this version excellent.

I don’t re-watch DVDs very often, preferring a gap of at least eight or nine years between viewings, and this is a long adaptation. There are five episodes of nearly an hour each. But after thirteen years it seemed like a good idea to see it again. So my husband and I re-watched it over four evenings in the past two weeks.

The first episode is a bit slow-moving. We meet Jane at the age of ten, excellently played by Juliet Waley. She lives with her cruel aunt and spiteful cousins, and is treated worse than a servant. She is constantly reminded of her aunt’s ‘charity’ in taking her in, and is struck and bullied badly by her cousins - who can do no wrong in their mother’s eyes.

Jane is not a docile child, and she fights against her tormentors, earning herself some quite cruel punishments. Eventually she’s sent away to school, where she even has to stay for holidays. And even though it’s an extremely unpleasant school for orphans, run by the selfish Mr Brocklehurst, where Jane is often hungry and cold, she prefers it to her previous life. It’s a sad and insightful picture of the horrors of some institutions in this era. But eventually it is given to kinder managers, and Jane grows up to become an assistant teacher, and then applies for - and gets - a job as governess to a young French girl.

The second and subsequent episodes are mainly based at Thornfield Hall, where Jane endears herself to the other household staff, and becomes very attached to the master of the house, Edward Rochester. He is unpredictable, often rude and abrupt, but there’s a chemistry between the two which works extremely well. There’s even some humour now and again, albeit quite low key.

Thornfield Hall has its dark secret, one that is quite well-known, but which was a huge shock to me the first time I read the book. Jane is convinced that one of the servants is rather dangerous and somewhat unhinged; there is a nasty scene when a visitor is attacked, and one in the fourth episode where, even knowing what was coming, I hid my hands.

We watched the fourth and fifth episodes together. The end of the fourth was quite a cliff-hanger, and even though I knew what was coming I wanted to see the end by that stage. And it’s all very well done. The BBC was always excellent at making period dramas. The costumes are authentic, the house realistic, and the conversation is mostly taken straight from the book.

There isn’t a huge cast, but they are all fully believable in their roles. To me, Sorcha Cusack is Jane Eyre. Michael Jayston in the role is exactly how Mr Rochester should look. And Megs Jenkins as Mrs Fairfax is delightful, with some wonderful facial expressions that communicate her thoughts perfectly.

There are other film adaptations of this classic novel, though as far as I know I’ve only seen one of them. It’s hard to imagine anything coming as close to the original as this mini-series, however. So much would have to be cut out for a two-hour film version.

Definitely recommended if you like films to stay close to the books from which they’re taken.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews