12/11/04

Someone asked how I could cry in Finding Neverland even though I thought it could have been done better. I started to respond, then realized that the comment was going to be long, so I decided to just post about it. First let me explain why I actually cried in the movie without getting into the specifics of what goes on in the movie.

I thought Finding Neverland had a lot of great "moments." What I mean by a "moment" is the instances when I'm watching a movie, where I feel like I can really relate to the moment that is created on screen. One good example is in the movie My Life with Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman. There's this one scene in which Keaton is telling his parents that he has cancer. The movie to this point has built up the disconnect that he has with his immigrant parents, as he's changed his name, barely ever speaks with them, really kind of rejects anything to do with the culture that his family comes from. Anyway, he tells them, and the phone conversation just broke my heart. All in that moment, I felt a flood of natural empathy. While I myself did not have that broken of a relationship with my parents, I could definitely understand the generation/culture gap that every child of an immigrant probably feels. It was so realistic to me.

Anyway, Finding Neverland had a good portion of these moments. And those were the times the tears welled up in my eyes. But I thought the movie could have been better because I thought it had some flow issues, and parts of the story just kind of made a plot leap that the audience just has to accept, there's no explanation. It was definitely a good movie, though, and I don't mean to disparage. I guess I can sometimes be a harsh movie critic. Sometimes.