I saw Miss Potter before Finding Neverland even though everyone said that Miss Potter felt like a lesser ripoff of Finding Neverland. Now that I have seen Finding Neverland, I think that the biopics have a few things in common, but are completely different genres. Both are about famous British authors of children’s books, explores the authors’ inspirations and disappointments, but each movie frames the author’s stories completely differently.
Miss Potter is a coming of age story, but Miss Potter always knew who she was and wrestled with the darkest corners of her life. Finding Neverland feels more like a man struggling to find his place in the world, but without the courage to face things head on. I preferred the approach to being an adult as depicted in Miss Potter over the midlife crisis of Finding Neverland.
Ostensibly Finding Neverland is about Peter Pan’s author emerging from a professional funk after befriending a fatherless family. Finding Neverland is one in a long line of movies that basically rationalizes why a man should commit (emotional) adultery. It says, “See! Isn’t he a nice guy and his wife is a complete bitch who doesn’t get him?!? It is too bad that he can’t be with this woman who obviously gets him and is completely perfect for him.” To be fair, who can compete with Kate Winslet, who steals every scene from an understated Johnny Depp who believably sports a Scottish accent. Also it is easier for Finding Neverland to have a romantic veneer than simply portray a married man exclusively hanging out with someone else’s kids and not caring a little bit about their mother.
The best role in Finding Neverland is a small role, Mrs. Snow, played by Eileen Essell, who appears in two scenes. She perfectly summarizes the melancholic nature of Peter Pan-the ticking crocodile as the approach of impending death that comes for us all. If you recall her earlier appearance and compare and contrast the scenes, you will realize why she is the most credible character to deliver the précis. If Finding Neverland had more beautiful moments like that, I may have enjoyed it, but there was something a bit anemic and desperate in Finding Neverland that kept me at emotional arms length.
Side note: Boardwalk Empire’s Kelly Macdonald plays Peter Pan in Finding Neverland!