Even though the movie is vastly different than the real events, I thought it did a good job of establishing that Barrie and Sylvia's relationship was NOT romantic. When I was a teenager and the film first came out, I do remember thinking, "Oh, I wish they could have gotten together!" but the more I've watched the film as an adult, the more I saw that his love and devotion was first and foremost to the boys, with Sylvia as an extension of that. They had a relationship of companionship. She was in the midst of grief, and he just wanted to be a part of that family.
I thought the film also did a good job of portraying Barrie being odd, for lack of a better term. I know he was moreso in real life, and probably not quite as lovably quirky as Depp portrayed him, but they made an effort to make him into something besides the handsome romantic leading man. Does the musical/Jordan do that? I honestly don't know.
While I realize Finding Neverland, both movie and musical, are works of fiction, I do believe that they should be, to some degree, respectful of the real people whose lives they are portraying. Yes, it might be best to leave out the darker elements of the real story: some of the deaths involved, the speculation on how appropriate or inappropriate Barrie's relationship with the boys was, though the movie touched on that briefly, but I appreciated that the movie tried to keep some things somewhat truthful (Barrie's oddities, no romantic relationship between him and Sylvia, etc.).
Other facts not included in FN:
* Sylvia's husband was alive and well when Barrie met the family.
* There was a fifth son that was left out of the movie, Nicco (mikey mentioned this). Fun fact: Nicco's daughter appears in the film. She is the old woman who approaches Freddie Highmore's Peter and says something along the lines of, "This is the real Peter Pan!"
* Sylvia's brother, the actor Gerald du Maurier (father of Daphne du Maurier, who wrote, among other things, Rebecca) originated the role of Captain Hook/Mr. Darling in Peter Pan.
* SPOILER: The in-house performance of Peter Pan, performed in the film for a dying Sylvia, was actually performed for one of the boy's birthday parties (I believe it was Michael's). The cast apparently was bossed around and found this performance to be a miserable experience.
On a side note, does anyone know who is understudying Barrie? I'm curious to see if they are closer in age to the real life Barrie than Jordan is, or if the production is going for a younger angle.
Updated On: 7/27/14 at 05:26 PM
