Childhood Recaptured

"Tonight we drink to youth and holding fast to truth; Don't wanna lose what I had as a boy..."I only want the truth; I'll never lose what I had as a boy," the Incubus lyrics played on the radio.
Several hours later, “Finding Neverland” starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet played on the television. I was expecting to see an adventurous fantasy film (i.e. "Hook," "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy) but that’s not how the movie turned out. Still, I found the content of the film very enjoyable. It was a dreary tale with a slowly moving plot (neither of which are bad factors, consider the beauty of the melancholy “Prozac Nation” or the slow plot developments of “Castaway”). Recalling the Incubus quotes and watching the film reminded me of something I, as an adult, often forget myself-the beauty of childhood.

“Finding Neverland” was enjoyable because it intertwined a great childhood classic, “Peter Pan” in a film with themes of innocence. The burdens of adulthood and growing older were touched upon. An old playgoer whose husband recently passed refers to the ticking clock in the crocodile’s mouth as the ticking clock of mortality. Adult characters face sickness, death, gossip, mindfulness of one’s image and reputation, and lost love. However, the most endearing element of the film is the innocent, platonic love between Sylvia Davies (Winslet) and Sir James Matthew Barrie (Depp), as well as Barrie's flights of imagination and playfulness with her children. Yes, there is a non-romantic love that can exist between a man and a woman that is seldom remembered or seen on the big screen. Barrie is informed of the gossip being spread over his time spent with Davies and her children. He replies, “You find a glimmer of happiness in this world; there's always someone who wants to destroy it."