Finding Neverland - A Review
I just got back from a sneak preview of ‘Finding Neverland.’
Here’s what you’ll hear about ‘Neverland’ in the coming weeks: it’s ‘Shadowlands,’ only with Johnny Depp instead of Anthony Hopkins, and much better. That, to be sure, is the movie in a nutshell, although it does not do it near enough justice. I won’t bother going into the plot, but, as everyone knows, Johnny Depp plays J. M. Barrie, Scottish author of the play Peter Pan, in the early 1900s.
The accent is impeccable. You’ll forget he’s doing one after the first ten minutes, in fact, you’ll forget you’re watching Johnny Depp (and comparing him to his other roles), after twenty. Some movies are horrible, but watchable because of Depp (‘Secret Window’), some are good, but needed Depp’s performance to give it the edge it needs (‘Pirates of the Caribbean’), but yet others, including this one, are fantastic pictures that have Depp so at the heart of the movie that he becomes the character, and the character becomes him. I could not see ‘Neverland’ working without Depp, not because he makes a bad film good, but because he is so integral to what the picture is, the two become inseparable. Think of a cake, and Johnny Depp is the sugar.
The movie itself, however, is the flour. It melds together Barrie’s imagination and reality in such a way as I’ve never before see. Marc Forster cuts between shots of Barrie playing with the children to shots of the same people in various fantasy worlds, and the effect is mesmerizing. I was supremely impressed by the cinematography as well. There were numerous times that I simply marveled at a brilliant camera move or framing. Many of those all-important moments that send chills down your spine are also there.
All of the acting is magnificent, especially the little boy playing the child Peter Davies, to whom Barrie takes special attachment to (and for whom Barrie names his titular flying boy), who will also be playing Charlie in the upcoming Burton adaptation of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ next to Depp. Kate Winslet and Julie Christie also impress as Peter’s mother and grandmother, respectively. If there is one ill note I felt in the acting, it was in Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Barrie’s producer. Hoffman’s acting simply felt a little too Hoffman-y for me. Take from that what you will.
The film moves along at a perfect pace. The film was about an hour and a half, although it felt nowhere near that short. In fact, the film began exactly when it should, did not rush through anything, and then ended exactly where it needed to.
Do not expect perfect historical accuracy. The film’s opening credits include the title ‘Inspired by True Events,’ and so do not be surprised when the film deviates from true events, or eliminates people here and there.
How did ‘Neverland’ stack up, then? Let me put it this way: About halfway through the film I decided that every writer should see this movie. By the end I decided every human should. The picture becomes more than about a writer and the family he loves, it becomes a story about what love is, and how it is best expressed. I cannot describe how incredible the movie is. I won’t say that to me it was a life changing experience, but perhaps it will be to many in the audience.
Go see ‘Neverland.’ 5 stars out of 5.
tylenol for my head
It's amazing how depressing that song is.
I wish I could remember my rant about Cheese Physics. It was either really funny, or I'm deluding myself.
Apparently Amanda's going to ASU, in case you didn't know. Yeah, shocking, I know.
every time we're alone, I get older
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6239247/
Is Ben Affleck's career over?
enough codeine to knock me dead
Nyquil, cherry red.
'They're not going to win.'
'Why?'
'Because of the curse.'
Rather uneventful day today, aside from all the events I'm not going to tell you about.
boston up four nothing here in the sixth
A young Customer Service Manager's noodling through applications, holds up one.
"This your friend?"
I glance at it: Christina Alexis--
"Yeah. That's her. She already got a job, though."
"Hm."
"She waited around for you guys."
"Hey, not my job. It's out of my hands." Perhaps as consolation, he adds, "I thought she was cute."
"Eh," I say, shrugging my shoulders noncommitally.
I walk off. A bit later, we're standing next to each other again.
"Sorry about my out of line remark," he says.
"What remark?"
"About her being cute."
"Oh. It's okay. I'll just tell her thirty year old boyfriend, and he'll come beat you up."
"Wouldn't be the first time it's happened."
what does love have to do with it?
I had a dream where I went to Japan. It was all very surreal, as I learned about a Japanese culture that was nothing as I imagined it.
I think perhaps I am going insane, but I really liked my dream and wish to go back there.
I love you, you love me that's forever
Redemption? You want redemption? Run up a bunch of stairs and shout from the top: I want redemption. Have dealings with the devil, perhaps he can save your sin from all this mercy. I don't want to go home, I want to live in all the parts of life I live well in.
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Chip won his alumni game. Had dinner with Sarah and her family at Subway.
I hate school.
out in the corner in the pouring rain
"So, you're leaving us, then."
"Yes."
"Next...fall."
"August 23rd."
And so the countdown begins?
Um, work was kinda fun tonight. Pretty typical. Tina came by, that was fun.
Boston won Game 1. Booooooyah.
and turn it around
Nothing particularly interesting to talk about today.
Well,
I had a weird dream. No, you weren't in it.
Charlie came by during my lunch break.
Holly's still as sweet as can be.
Ashley's really cool.
I wish whoever keeps calling me would leave a message instead of just leaving a 'missed call' on my phone.
troubles ahead, troubles behind
Amanda got into ASU. Let the partying begin.
Didn't see Christina yesterday (Tuesday). That sort of sucked, we'll probably do lunch today (Wednesday), though.
I voted.
My brother started bleeding from the nose on the way home. I really do hate blood, and it didn't help that it got everywhere.
James, Lazious, and Sarah all called yesterday. James and Sarah left messages. I got a call from 'Restricted' during work last night...it was probably Sarah, but it might have been Eva. If they don't leave a message, I won't know.
'Are you accepting applications?'
'We're always accepting applications.'
'Are you currently using applications for something other than birdcage liner?'
Sometimes customers are funny.
take a sip of water or jack
Kind of uneventful day today. Hung out with Tina a while, took a bunch of pictures.
Went to Sarah's volleyball game. They almost won. Well, sort of. Sarah played mostly great.
Wish I had more to talk about, but I don't.
california sun
Nothing much of interest happened today, aside from that Amanda will be getting her letter from ASU on Monday, so, everyone hope that she's accepted, or else she'll feel really silly wearing her ASU sweatshirt.
I wrote a story:
Brandon
Brandon was a little boy who would come and bother us on weekends when the mistress was not around. I no longer think he was real, but I have distinct memories of his pudgy little face, his fierce red hair, and the sound his shoes made against our wooden floor when he ran his hobbled run. One day, Brandon told us that he was no longer real, and he would no longer be visiting us anymore on the weekends when the mistress was no longer around. Susanne cried, her cheeks turning red as a summer’s evening. I could never bring myself to cry. All emotions have always felt to me a bit like silly acting. I feel a certain way inside, sure, but why should I simply let all that flow out of me like too much water in a faucet? And so all my friends told me that I never showed any emotion at all. Perhaps I should have just done what they all expected, and cry at Brandon’s departure. By that time, however, I didn’t think he was real anyway, and so it would have been acting on top of acting, and I never was much of an actress.
And so Brandon left, and we didn’t see anything of him until near thirty years later, when I received a letter in the mail from a Mr. Brandon Marks from London, who very much wished to see me the coming weekend. You must understand, I had aged my thirty years very gracefully, but graceful does not mean that the thirty years did not show. My husband was ten years dead, my children shortly afterward, all from an illness the doctors still do not understand, and the effort of showing my grief had taken a dullness to my face that no one could look at and have a word to say in response. It was as if my very dullness was such an abomination to a world of differences that it could not stand it, and felt as if it needed to abandon me to some place outside of its borders. Even my sister did not want me near her. I had never felt so unwanted by the world.
Until my twenty-sixth birthday, I said that the thing I most wanted in the world was to be loved. This is completely untrue, however. The thing best in the world is to have someone worthy for me to love, someone that I can love with my whole entire heart, and know that they love me back. But that giving of the love is the best. Susanne says that it is better to give than to receive, but what she doesn’t realize is that it is just as selfish to give as to want to receive. The giving, however, lasts longer than the trinket your friends give to you. It’s all a circle of giving. Not a circle of receiving. Brandon claimed that he loved me. I felt happy for him, because I’m sure that gave him a wonderful feeling inside to say that.
a hurricane, a hurricane
Had a moderatly fun night Haloing with 9 other guys. I won or was close most of the time we weren't playing dumb Capture-the-Flag.
I did a new song today. Go check it out: http://www.gregoryharbin.com
I'll probably call Fig tomorrow. Fig, who is in Florida, or maybe Georgia right now. I know he's somewhere.
rosemary, heaven restores me in life
Tina got a job at the Rack.
Everyone give her a round of applauses.
And then bug her to buy shoes for you with her discount.
it's way too late to be this locked inside ourselves
I'm thinking of writing a short film and having Fig direct it.
if time is a vessel, then learning to love might be a way back to sea
Went to see The Village with Sarah today. Shyamalan could not have done a better job executing that concept.
Rented Superman and watched it with my parents. Christopher Reeve is an oasis of talent in a sea of crap.
--------------------
I've decided that I will cede all decisions about my dating life to my myriad (apparently) friends, since they are (apparently) much better at making said decisions than I am.
this is a wasteland now
Christopher Reeve died this morning.
see what you've done with my heart and soul?
Here's the main thing I don't get:
Oh, I met her, and instantly, we just clicked.
What? You're telling me, you met a person, and instantly, you felt this intense connection between the two of you? I don't buy it.
This goes back to something that someone said to me (and I posted) a while ago:
Me: My dating life is going to be a series of finding girls who find my stupidity adorable.
Her: This is true. But at least you know this and don't think it's 'cuz you're actually, ya know, attractive physically.
I'm not sure who most of you assumed I was talking about there, but it was actually a RL friend of mine that not many people OL have heard of. My post yesterday, about only one girl understanding me? That's not her. But she's really close. We can talk for hours, she's one of the only people I can talk to on the phone with any sort of good conversation coming out of it. I'm terrible on the phone. Some of you know that. I shut down my conversational skills (already lacking) when I know of the person is that annoyingly tinny voice of theirs in my ear. I guess this girl (let's call her 'Sarah,' because that's her name), I guess what it is with Sarah, is that I know so much about her, and she knows so much about me, we KNOW each other, and therefore I can talk to her, and I know where she's coming from, and what I can say, and what she's about to say. There's not many suprises, but it WORKS in a way that no other phone conversations I have do.
Paragraph. The phone conversation I had the other day was horrible. A combination of I-can't-do-telephone plus tons of crap I didn't know about being poured upon me. I shut down in that sort of situation. Sarah knows that, so she doesn't do it to me. I need time to process crap, I can't just come back with the obvious arguments. Am I trying to make excuses for not saying things on the phone I should have? Darn straight I am. It's not my fault, it's the phone's.
And that goes back to the thing I posted a while back. I have many stupid traits. I'm terribly sorry, but I do. I considered listing them, but it would be really difficult.
1. I can't talk on the phone
2. I don't attach easy
3. You never know for sure if I'm joking or being serious
4. I can be really really mean when I mean to be
5. I can piss you the hell off without intending to if I don't know you very well
6. Once I'm attached, I'm stuck. But until I'm stuck, I can unstick rather easily.
I'm probably missing some, but I want to go on. I guess the main problem I had with Evie on this week was that I was halfway between attached and not. I was just about getting to the point where I was starting to really like her, starting to actually want to be with her, starting to want to get to know her past those base little background info things we had to get out of the way first. But, I wasn't there yet. Which was why it was such a shock when she told me what a horrible selfish boyfriend I was. I wasn't at the point where I could have made any such judgment of her. I wasn't near that point. I was still in 'this is fun' stage.
Like a Hamster, first coming across one of those wheel things. He sees it, then walks up to it, then, he slowly sniffs it, then stops caring for a bit again, then sniffs again, then he actually gets on it, and tries to figure out what it's for. I was right at that stage with Eva. I didn't yet know that the wheel could kill me, I didn't know how much potential of fun I could have with the wheel. I just didn't know, yet. I wasn't evaluating how good a girlfriend she was being. I just WASN'T, yet.
And yet, somehow, she was. And, oh well. I guess I failed her test. The wheel was rigged with a bit of electricity, and though the signs said 'come run on me!' it was all a trick so the hamster could feel stupid.
I guess it mainly just disheartens me that she gave up on me before she understood even the first of those points of stupidity.
And I wish she'd write me back.
the pretense is not what restricts me
One girl in the world understands me. One single girl. That's amazing.
There's a guy that I think understands me.
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I suddenly have a distaste for the word 'coquettish' and all it implies.
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Interpol is turning out very nicely, thank you.
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Woman today told me that I was an 'asset' to Harris Teeter. I haven't smiled that broadly in, oh, a week and a couple days.
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I had the most amazing chocolate cake from Starbucks. For free. And then Holly gave me some free coffee to have along with it. I love that girl and wish to marry her immediately.
we ain't going to the town, we're going to the city
Oh, just a couple of bloody fantastic days behind me.
I guess I really don't want to talk about it on my blog, so if I haven't already come to you about what I'm talking about, you could ask me, if you wanted.
I suppose Interpol isn't the best thing to get me through this, but it's going to have to do.
it took a lifespan, with no cellmate, and a long way back
People just need to stop cutting themselves. The concept needs to be lost to time.
I really don't have much more in this space, the entire thing is taking up all of my deep thought faculties.
If you want to talk to me about it, maybe if you have any great amazing thoughts about the topic, or, hey if you're just curious what's going on, feel free to call me (704.517.8092) or jot me an e-mail (mailto:gregory.harbin@gmail.com).
has been...might...again?
Had a fun chat with James.
Getting to bed now.
Should do another rant, these entries are getting kinda short, but I haven't had much I wanted to publicly vent about, so that's how that goes.
Trying to get a thing together on Saturday, but it depends on what we want to do, and who wants to come, and who's not mad at me when.
she felt a lonely sound
Picked up the new Interpol record.
the first door came, I couldn't bring myself to take it
Nothing much interesting happened today. Had an Astron test, ate lunch with Tina. Called Eva. That's about it.
the good times are killing me
I put about five of my songs back up on my web site, gregoryharbin.com, so, all of you can now go rush over there and take a listen.
No, seriously, go on.
/waits
Okay, back now? Great.
Today was rather uneventful....
Ha, as if!
Nothing I'm going to tell you folks, though.
a mosquito, my libido
Today I:
Woke up at 7, stayed in bed until 7.30ish, then got moving, got breakfast, ect., went to work, got there by 8.30, when I was supposed to.
Managed to be rather awakey at 8.30, which was very good.
Talked with Jo-Jo a bit, then forgot to go and see her before I left. Sorry, Joanne!
Was surprised by Evie's surprise appearance near the end of my shift. I was in 'working' mode completely by then, though, so it was hard to switch to 'conversation' mode. Then Tammy walked up, and I was afraid she was going to yell at me. The amusing thing of it all was, if Eva'd showed up ten minutes later, we would have been completely dead, and she could have talked to me while I was clocking out. Oh well. Such is life, eh? Hope to remember to call her tomorrow with something to do. Sarah wants to do something, so does James, so does Chip, so maybe we can do an everybody together sort of thing. Yay.
Saw Jason's house for the first time. Made the obvious joke about his cat.
Borrowed the ANH and special features DVDs from the aforementioned Jason. They're pretty cool so far, although the commentary on ANH repeats a lot of stuff that's in the Empire of Dreams documentary.
Went to Phil and Tony's, and had a not terrible pizza.
Went to Marble Slab Creamery. Was reminded that the attitude of the person getting your ice cream for you really affects your ice cream experience. Today we had a good ice cream getter. Saw a cute young indie couple at the Slab, too. They were cute.
I ran my car into a cop car the other day
For all who care:
http://www.gregoryharbin.com is now back in business.
None of the songs are back, but they should be shortly.
life it rents us
I found one of my old journals.
Looking over it, though, looks like I only did this one for five days, from August 20th 2003 until August 24th 2003. So, it's kinda disappointing. I did one longer ago than that that would be REALLY entertaining to go back and read again. However, I do think that one has been lost to time.
I may still find things in these scant five pages of interest, however. I did write quite a bit into these. Right now, I'm gonna copy in my last ever physical journal entry.
Sunday, August 24th, 2003
10.18 PM
Woo hoo. I start college tomorrow. Let me reiterate: woo hoo. Not convincing? Didn't think so. All the problems I have with public school I still have with college. School is inefficient, school is over expensive, and school is a tool for governmental propaganda. And, you're in there with a bunch of other college age kids, which makes things even better. 'College-age' just screams 'maturity,' doesn't it? Didn't think so. 'College-age' means they are at the height of their immaturity, and often they are moving into a dorm, so this is the first time 'out of from under the thumb of [their] oppression.'
(2004 editor's note: the part in brackets was not added by me now, it was added by me back then, because I was quoting a Star Wars radio show that some people were doing at the time. Want more information, ask me. Okay, back to the whining.)
This is where the morals that their parents taught them will be tested. 'What orals?' you ask. Good question. These kids leave home early in the morning, go to be propagandists, then come home, do homework, sleep, then repeat. They hardly get any, if any, interaction with their parents. And even if they had time to talk to their parents they wouldn't, because their friends say that that's not cool. And even if they wanted to talk to their parents, it wouldn't matter, because the parents have nothing to say tp them, because they grew up the same way. And even if their parents had something good to say, it wouldn't matter, because the school gets them 8, 9 hours a day, pumping into them a message of sameness, patriotism, and, oh, forget it.
(2004 editor's note: I still agree with some of that, but probably not all.)
Point is, I'll be going to school with a bunch of immature, brainwashed, illiterate kids, who will all do better in my classes than me, because they won't make waves. And I'll make waves, alright. UNCC is going to rue the day they try and propagandize me.
(Rue the day, I tell you! They'll RUE it!)
I played in Waxhaw this morning, then slept all afternoon, then went to church here Pastor Trice preached a pretty good sermon about television. I say 'pretty good' because he used a bunch of faulty statistics, and statistics that weren't applicable. I don't like statistics in general, and I really don't like when the pastor uses them in sermons.
Welp. I'm off to get a good night's sleep to prepare for my fun day tomorrow. G'night.
Pretty good stuff, eh? Maybe not. Oh well, I find it interesting. I might post more later, if there's interest.
went too fast I'm out of luck
Life is a series of events strung together only by a false narrative we create in our heads.
When writing a movie, you need some kind of thread to connect various scenes, as in Catch Me If You Can, where the FBI agent, played by Tom Hanks, connects together the parts of Frank Abignale's life.
We do the same things in our life. It mostly helps when we imagine other people thinking about us more than they probably do.
In other news, 'waesome' is a contraction of 'way awesome,' and everyone should say it.
