Kate Winslet? Here? In my cottage? I hadn't noticed...

... and though I don't really see this principally as a movie review, I suppose one sorta spoiler does lurk herein. Just so you know.

My lovely wife and I got out this week to see Finding Neverland--an account (I've no idea how fictionalized or not) of J.M. Barrie, and how he came to write the play Peter Pan.

First things first: yes, I very much liked it. I don't believe I've ever actually seen the Disney Pan, though you can't help but know elements of the story. But Finding Neverland is a marvellously well-done film whether or not you know anything about Pan--warmly human, without obviously manipulative sentimentality, and simply extraordinarily well-cast and acted.

No, let's go beyond 'extraordinarily'. The cast is freakin' unbelieveable. Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, and Julie Christie all do justice to their reputations in major roles, and Dustin Hoffman, in a smallish part as Barrie's increasingly alarmed producer, is beyond perfect. And as to the kids--well, damn. Four child actors play four boys, and there's no playing for cute, no moments in which you notice (as I find you do generally more frequently with younger cast) they're obviously acting. Craftsman to a man, if slightly shorter ones.

The only part of the whole affair I found hard to get: well, okay, I'll confess, but it probably just makes me a dirty old man. The only thing that jarred for me was this: the film isn't particularly ambiguous on whether there was a sexual relationship between Winslet's Llewelyn-Davies (the widow and mother to four boys whose adventures give Barrie the idea for Pan) and Depp's Barrie, and the implication seemed to be no, there wasn't, at least for the period covered in detail by the film, prior to the final collapse of Barrie's marriage. And beyond this, I suppose, there not much implication either way, since it's not much covered.

For that matter, there's no suggestion even of any sexual tension. And that, I must confess, I found hard to swallow.

And no, I'm not commenting on the character of Barrie. It's just that they had Kate Winslet playing Llewelyn-Davies...

And I'm sorry, I'm a boy at heart too, as Barrie is implied to have been--I like pirates and Indians and adventure on the high seas as much as the next guy...

But if I'd found myself in a country cottage with Kate Winslet, well, look: I'm sure I'd have at least wanted, erm... (searches for a phrase appropriate to the era) for the relationship to have progressed to a more physically intimate level...

I mean, come now, people. Kate Winslet has to be one of the most attractive women on the planet. What cruel casting director puts a hapless playwright alone in a cottage with her and then expects us to buy he's not more than bit interested, hmmm?

Anyway. Still a damn good film.