Finding Neverland

It's often a while these days between movies for me and my wife. Used to be that we wouldn't miss seeing at least one a weekend, usually two. It was our thing. It was what we did with our time and money. Now our time and money is devoted to teaching. On the weekends, we correct papers and plan lessons. Our money goes for energy drinks and books for our school book shelves. Still every now and then we make it out to the theater for a little bit of our old pasttime.

This weekend we caught Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. I let my wife choose the film since there isn't much out I'm interested in seeing. So it was Neverland or In Good Company or Phantom of the Opera. I was partially hoping for Phantom, since so many people are talking about it at school. Also, the book Phantom by Susan Kay--based on the original Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux--is one of my favorite stories of all time. I read Phantom in San Francisco after my father's second stroke. I read it sitting up in his bed each night after returning from the day at Stanford hospital watching him struggle to chew and swallow and watching the therapists try to bend his limbs the way they used to bend on their own. The book was a great escape from the reality of what was going on with my father and it remains one of my favorite books still.

However, Phantom was not in my future. My wife chose Neverland, most likely for Depp, whom she's liked since the 80's 21 Jump Street, as have I. The movie was fun and heart touching, and Depp was his usual amazing self (though I don't know if the part is worthy of an Oscar...). He delivered a very convincing Scottish accent. The boys in the movie were also quite good, in fact, everyone in the movie was good. The ending was true to the story and made most of the audience cry. Me, I've tried to harden myself against such episodes, but my wife had a good boo-hoo. The movie was the best I've seen recently, the past five or so months. When I caught Depp on the Golden Globes earlier tonight, I found myself hoping he'd win.

It's magical and warm and something I'll be buying on DVD.