Finding Neverland: Critic Reviews

Depp, as the Scottish-born turn-of-the-century playwright J.M. Barrie, portrays a fellow who is openly gentle to the core, and the actor just about wraps the movie around his lilting delivery and quiescent gaze.

Marc Forster's handsome-looking film stars Johnny Depp as J. M. Barrie and Kate Winslet as the widow whose sons inspired Barrie to write Peter Pan.

The story is told gently and simply without excess sentimentality. It is a welcome departure from more contrived holiday fare.

You're expected to weep, and perhaps you will weep. But if you do, it's not likely that you'll respect yourself in the morning.

Depp is a charm. He becomes his own, subtly compelling Barrie.

Good taste runs amok. The movie is careful to offend no one, which, in a more dramatically told film might not be as irritating.

Finding Neverland practices a tasteful restraint, embodied by Depp's unusually subdued performance.

As a study of the creative process, Finding Neverland is too literal, yet gives a healthy idea of the richness and ingenuity of Barrie's work.

Some things are worth causing a lump in your throat. Finding Neverland is one of them.

Despite opportunities to turn soft and clammy, the film is moving but not maudlin, whimsical but not cloying.

The verities are about the ways imagination is craved and curtailed by loved ones and by society.

If it didn't have Johnny Depp as its star, Finding Neverland would barely pass muster as an average PBS Masterpiece Theatre entry.

For Depp, Finding Neverland is the latest in an extraordinary series of performances.

Finding Neverland has a radiance that comes primarily from Depp's performance but finally suffuses the whole movie -- with its marvelous cast and lovingly created images of a British Edwardian past.

Twee is one of those distinctly English words. It's used to describe something flowery, fey, hopelessly lightweight. It can also be applied -- quite nicely, thank you -- to Finding Neverland.

Intelligent and inspiring.

It's a reminder that a sense of play is at the heart of every play -- at the heart of every artistic endeavor, for that matter -- and yet life is more than just a playground.

Forster builds on each scene, and the finale ... is quite moving.

It's harmless cotton candy with pleasant turn-of-the-century decor, but I admit the Disney ambiance eventually wore me out and I spent a lot of time looking at my watch.

Finding Neverland establishes its limits and then transcends them to provide a glorious entertainment for this holiday season.

Impeccably made and genuinely moving.

Johnny Depp adds yet another indelible, Oscar-worthy portrait to his gallery of memorable characters

Finding Neverland is not exactly the way it happened, but this is a movie with a higher truth, one we need to believe in. And you will believe. You will.

There isn't much that's less interesting to watch Johnny Depp do than bring a quiet and steady decency to anything.

It's a mild pleasure to watch.