One of those "stories behind the story," Finding Neverland is inspired by (i.e., the filmmakers changed a lot of stuff) the true life of "Peter Pan" author Sir James Barrie and his platonic relationship with Syliva Davies and her four sons at the turn-of-the-century (20th Century, that is). London is alive with antique cars, Victorian styles of dresses for women and proper suits for gentlemen, and the people sit in idealized green grass and under shady trees with their polite children.

Even more ideal, Davies is played by the uber-delicious Kate Winslet, an actress who has never made a bad movie. Johnny Depp is Barrie, and you know his track record is just as full of sure-thing films. Depp could act out the part of Nana the dog and he’d get an Oscar nomination.

	Even with Depp, Pirates of Hyde Park: Curse of the Moldy Scone wasn't as popular.

After a chill-inducing trailer for Finding Neverland enticed me for three months, I came in wanting to see magic on the screen. I wanted tears. Simply enough, I wanted to feel. I got it all, but not in the doses I was recommended. Neverland is a lot more depressing than I hoped. It’s all well and good to imagine a world like Neverland where the grass is greener, but you only get there when you’re dead or dreaming. Back in real life, reality blows. At least it does for Johnny Depp, who has a great disposition considering his marriage is on the rocks and Kate Winslet’s husband died, leaving her with four boys to raise alone.

It’s like how you sing love songs loudly in the car and with great oomph, then realize your love life is nonexistent and you come back crashing into a sad reality. Dream big, but most of the time that’s all it is, a dream. Talking silliness is great, but wanting to live it is another thing.

Holy cow, does it sound like I’m ready to jump off a bridge lately? Sorry. I really could use some of that childlike innocence that Barrie is overflowing with, believing anything can happen.

Dear readers of iJeff, if you truly want Jeff to have a chance at finding love, you must believe! Do you? Do you!? Clap for him! Cheer! Bring his hope alive! Please, I know I’m no Tinkerbell, but I’m worth saving nonetheless.

Actually, I tired of being sad last week. I changed the depressing CDs out of my car CD case and put in music that KICKS! That’s right, it’s so long to R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” and we’re popping in R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People”!

Unlike that song, in Neverland there are serious adult themes addressed, about death, grief and infidelity, and too many long, weighty scenes that I don't imagine children would sit through comfortably.

I would have liked to have seen more of Winslet and hear her thoughts and feelings on the situation. Her children are the most important reason for the movie, and as their mother we really needed more emotional oomph and explanation about how she’s dealt with losing her husband.

Most important of the four boys is Peter, namesake for Barrie’s famous play. Peter has an old soul, with no imagination and a stuffy persona since his father passed away from cancer. The other boys are more eager to play and take part in games, but Peter just sees such silliness as attempts to pretend his pain isn’t real, much like Captain Kirk in Star Trek V: The Search For A Decent Plot. Unfortunately, some people can't help but start drawing Michael Jackson and his Neverland into the relationship of the boys and Barrie, but the viewer is never in doubt that this is a relationship good for everyone involved.

Depp brings his own world of sunshine and flowers to the family, while we see elements of "Peter Pan" a little at a time revealed. Here is where Finding Neverland is best, not to mention artistic, clever, imaginative, innovative, original (running out of adjectives, must make one up now), fabricatistic. Through flashes we see what the imagination does instead of what's really there, such as when Depp pretends that his big dog is a bear, and we see them dance at the circus as if it were true.

Meanwhile, Depp's doubting wife is stuffy and disenchanted with their marriage, unable to grasp what she sees as his flightiness. Julie Christie, Winslet's mom, is similarly a stickler to protect her daughter and grandchildren from Depp and what she sees as destroying the family's good name among London high society.

The dialogue is old-school, using flowery language for even the simplest exchanges. Sometimes it seems forced, though for the most part it's poetic, as if a play on screen.

There's plenty of humor and some truly special feel-good moments, and ultimately Finding Neverland has an uplifting message.

For those who bring Kleenex regularly to films, by the end I did notice that many of the women around me in the packed crowd were also encountering “allergies” from the dusty theater, so that should tell you something.