Finding Neverland

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Pure magic.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Depp and Winslet in particular are, as you might expect, immaculate. I don't think there's another actor alive who can convey the intermingling of gentleness and passion with as much precision as Depp.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's a real pleasure to find a movie as calm, measured and dead-on in its impact as Finding Neverland.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's an intellectual family film for literate parents and children, immensely pleasing if not perfect, perhaps a smidgen too brightly evasive and determinedly charming.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The glory of the movie is Depp, who achieves his own immortality.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Surprisingly moving.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Johnny Depp has finally won me over to rabid support after "Neverland" and "Pirates of the Caribbean." He gives the most controlled, least mannered performance of his career, staying sweet and rueful while suggesting unseen emotional depths.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Glorious entertainment.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

A rewarding piece of filmmaking that has all the makings of a classic weepie.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An impeccably made and genuinely moving account of how Scottish author J.M. Barrie came to write "Peter Pan."

Newsweek David Ansen

Mingling reality and fantasy, Forster has given us a luminous, touching meditation on life and art.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Gently seductive, genuinely tender and often moving without being maudlin.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Depp is a charm. He becomes his own, subtly compelling Barrie.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Takes you back to a time in which people – children, in particular – still created whole worlds in their heads, inventing characters and situations as far away as their flights of fancy would take them.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Because it's a well-crafted and superbly acted sweet little tearjerker, we're content too -- it's a mild pleasure to watch.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Delightful and moving - although fanciful.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The story is told gently and simply without excess sentimentality. It is a welcome departure from more contrived holiday fare.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Depp portrays a fellow who is openly gentle to the core, and the actor just about wraps the movie around his lilting delivery and quiescent gaze.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Compelling and life-affirming.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Forster keeps the picture as a whole in perfect tune with Depp's approach.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film rests on Depp's evocation of Barrie's gentle, playfulness and deeply buried sorrows; it's difficult to imagine another actor so gracefully evoking Barrie's childlike qualities without seeming creepy or emotionally malformed, and only the hard of heart will come away dry-eyed.

Chicago Reader Meredith Brody

The plays and amusements the boys put on--by far the most successfully magical scenes in the movie--inspire Barrie to create his great work, "Peter Pan."

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

A worthwhile way to spend some of your precious leisure time, especially in this season of obnoxious cartoons and ham-handed holiday fare.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

We have a whole new reason to appreciate cinema's most creative chameleon (Depp) since Peter Sellers. The film itself is pretty and sweet but a tad soggy.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Handsome, professional and dutiful, but it never feels inspired.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's a portrait of the artist as Mary Poppins.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Washes over you with an enjoyable gloss, and it might even make you cry a little, but it evaporates in memory like fairy dust.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It just doesn't have the buoyancy, or the resonance, that this kind of semifactual flight of fancy needs.

Washington Post Teresa Wiltz

You're expected to weep, and perhaps you will weep. But if you do, it's not likely that you'll respect yourself in the morning.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Precious and uninsightful but ends beautifully.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A sappy excursion to Edwardian days.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Depp and Highmore's final scene together strikes a muted blow of desolation -- bottomless but just bearable -- that Forster rather bravely lets stand as the last word on all the fanciful solace that Barrieland had to offer.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Takes liberties with its hero, which is hardly a crime (the real-life Barrie was extremely childlike), but the movie chases after magic with overproduced fantasy sequences, and a feel-good, literalist climax that betrays the very notion of imagination as a force superior to reality.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Surprisingly wan film.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A handsome-looking film about the writer and his unripe inspirations, the actor Johnny Depp neither soars nor crashes, but moseys forward with vague purpose and actorly restraint.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Forster's movie doesn't want to grow up, but it doesn't seem to understand childhood, either. For a film about the life-affirming power of imagination, Finding Neverland displays precious little of its own.

Time Richard Corliss

Finding Neverland takes a big, brave leap and lands splat on the sidewalk.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Dismal and heavy, and the failure rests chiefly with Johnny Depp, who plays Barrie.