How do you go about deciding on your favourite film? It’s likely that the first film that comes to mind is something you decided on a while ago and haven’t thought over for a while, or something you watched recently that you remember you enjoyed. Does that make it the one?
And what should be the criteria? When I started thinking about this, I immediately came up with five or six candidates. Then I realised I was trying to ignore the blockbuster (Avatar, Star Wars, Titanic etc), or the traditionally more niche favourites (see Garden State, Eternal Sunshine) to try and show I’d really thought about it and wasn’t picking the obvious.
Then, trying to stop myself doing this I looked at the list of films that sprang to mind. They were all great films, to be sure, but my favourite film of all time? The film I was going to nail my cinematic preferences to the internet mast with. Was I really considering these ones?
So, I re-assessed. Surely, I reasoned, there must be some great films, indeed my favourite film that hadn’t made that initial mental list, either through mental block, my own bias, or some other unfathomable but sensible reason.
So, I hold my hands up and I confess I googled “favourite films”, to check I hadn’t missed my diamond in the rough by being unable to see the cinematic forest for the films-I-just-watched trees that were blinding me. And I found great films by the score. Well, just one score. I got to twenty and realised that while these were great films upon reflection, if I couldn’t come up with it on my own spontaneously, I was over-thinking it and lying to myself, or even worse, turning into some pretentious film critic type. Anything but that.
So, back to that initial list. The Matrix for blowing me away with the world it created and more importantly its ability to astound and confound with the brilliant, audacious simplicity of the concept. Fellowship of the Ring for actually living up to and even exceeding my imagining of Middle Earth from reading the books. Saving Private Ryan for those opening thirty minutes where you realised that cinema had just changed forever. Stardust and the Princess Bride – because I’m a sucker for a fairy tale love story even if it is a bit twee. Team America for making me laugh for a full ninety minutes. Lost in Translation and In Bruges for their bravely perfect endings.
But the film I thought of first will have to be the one I choose. Finding Neverland. And the reason is that it is the only film I have ever watched in the cinema, filed outside, and then, when I usually deconstruct the film or point out how it could have even better if this had just been tweaked, or if this line hadn’t been so awful, or if the director had cut the film just a bit more, or…well you see where I’m going here. My point is, I got outside and I uttered the words “You know, I can’t think of a single thing I’d change about that film. For what it was trying to be, it was perfect.*”
*Disclaimer – this might not have been the actual words, but are close enough. Probably.
So, to Finding Neverland.
So many things could have been by-the-numbers in the film, and yet the writing, acting, and direction keeps everything grounded, understated. It could have been all about a love story, yet instead leaves it almost always unsaid in the background. It could have been about effects, with imaginings of Neverland taking centre stage. It isn’t. It could have been all about the two Hollywood heavyweight leads in Kate Winslet and Johnny Depp, yet instead it is Freddie Highmore who is allowed to steal the limelight as Peter, the fragile soul of the movie.
Throughout subtly prevails, the obvious choice eschewed for a less flashy but more rewarding option. The acting is top class, yet brilliantly understated, allowing the quality of the script to shine though. It’s a story that is allowed to grow organically rather than forced upon you, and the result is the rare triumph of a perfectly balanced film where its component parts work in total harmony.
It isn’t flashy, it isn’t necessarily overtly brave with its ending (something I absolutely love in a movie), the cinematography isn’t outstanding, the direction isn’t out of this world exciting. It just…works.
