Finding Neverland (2004)

While it may have been inspired by actual events, the story of the author James Barrie and his relationship with the Llewellyn Davis family has been a little loose with the facts.  For a start there were five boys who were the children of friends (not come upon in Hyde Park) and Mrs L D, as played by Kate Winslet, was not a widow at the time.  But never mind; the changes serve a moving dramatic purpose and help explain the child-in-the-man of Barrie as he befriended them.  Johnny Depp gives another virtuoso performance as the playwright, although his fastidious Scottish accent was beyond the call of duty -- it would have played just as well without it.  Winslet too was very moving as the Earth Mother doomed by illness.  The imagined sequences that illustrated the youthfulness of Barrie's imagination were more than well done, as was the genius of his installing children at the first performance of "Peter Pan" to ensure its acceptance by an adult audience. The near-end scene where a private performance is staged at Winslet's home as she is about to enter Neverland is guaranteed to produce waterworks from all but the most cynical.  My only other comment is that Radha Mitchell as Barrie's angry wife and Julie Christie as Winslet's sceptical mother were in fairly thankless roles.