Disappointed by the lukewarm reception his latest play received, Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie is clearly in need of some serious inspiration. Unexpectedly, he finds it one day during his daily walk with his St. Bernard in London's Kensington Gardens, where he encounters the Llewelyn Davies family: four fatherless boys and their beautiful, recently widowed mother. Despite the disapproval of the boys' steely grandmother and the resentment of his own wife, Barrie befriends the family, engaging the boys in tricks, disguises, games and sheer mischief, creating play-worlds of castles and kings, cowboys and Indians, pirates and castaways. He transforms hillsides into galleon ships, sticks into mighty swords, kites into enchanted fairies and the Llewelyn Davies boys into "The Lost Boys of Neverland." From the sheer thrills and adventurousness of childhood will come Barrie's most daring and renowned masterwork, "Peter Pan." Barrie begins rehearsals only to shock his actors with such unprecedented requests as asking to fly across the stage, talking to fairies made of light and don dog and crocodile costumes. Then, just as Barrie is ready to introduce the world to "Peter Pan," a tragic twist of fate will make the writer and those he loves most understand just what it means to really believe. David Magee's screenplay is based on the play "The Man Who Was Peter Pan," written by Allen Knee.

Somewhere between the legend and the myth of Peter Pan lies a true genius who opened a whole new world for us, where children never have to grow old. J.M. Barrie was quoted to have said "The tragedy of childhood is that it ends all too quickly.” The movie is pure magic in opening our eyes to much wilder world of imagination and the dream and desire of always being young. It would be impossible I think to not be moved by this movie. The story and acting take you on a wild journey where you can almost see what Barrie saw and it as if you have entered Neverland itself. J.M. Barrie changed the very landscape of how plays were done in a time when some of the things he was asking the actors to do was unheard of and almost absurd. The movie lets us see this all as it unravels the magic that was Barrie and lets us soar the cloads with Peter Pan himself.

Once again Johnny Depp turns in a stirring performance that will very likely earn him the Oscar he so richly deserves. Depp is a splendid actor that can make you believe he is anyone he is supposed to be playing from Barrie, to a rogue pirate, to someone with scissors as hands. Depp makes it possible for you to almost see what J.M. Barrie might have seen when he created Neverland. The movie was stunning, it was heart warming and it was one of the best films made it quite sometime, a treat for all especially those young at heart.
5 stars out of 5