Where art thou neverland?
Crocodiles, Fairies, Pirates, and Indians… how do you re-conjure up
the lost memory of childhood from these old, stubborn, and just acerbic
adult bodies of ours?
I find it increasing difficult for grown-ups to even think near the
edge of box, let alone outside the box and beyond the box. How could
we ever free our mind?
In the world of often pressing daily annoyances, fights, deaths, and quarrels, our minds are constantly either jaded, drugged, or empty. Duties and tasks become so mechanical and methodical, we became no different than machines, the breathing, walking…brain dead.
In my recently found past time, I find this movie amusing and could relate somewhat closely with it. In the movie Finding Neverland, Academy acclaimed actor Johhny Depp is
the child who never wanted to grow up, who tried everything in his
power NOT to be a star (well… good try). While he constantly struggled to make peace with the society, he could not find even find peace with his family. Equally mesmerizing, Kate Winslet played a
widowed mother with four children who longed for this magically place called
Neverland. Eventually, she could toss away the stifling struggle of life and live to believe in fairytale. Equally painful is the process of growing up, the children must face the death of their mother. But how do they come to a consensus between their imagination and reality? Where do they find the tipping equilibrium? Without giving anything further away, I think this movie is one of the best I’ve seen. it’s a story about the original author of Peter Pan, how he struggled in life to help a poor widow and an old mother to start believing in Neverland again.
Interestingly, Neverland is a vague psychological symbol, it is a
place that is different depending on who you talk to. Some would say
it’s a place where your imagination is unlimited, others would tell you
it’s a place where you never die…etc It’s amorphous enough
where we could make it anything we want to be.
The bottom line, however, which I think is also the most beloved key of this movie, is perhaps the fact that Neverland promised one would find limitless possibilities with no rules and boundaries in this Uptoia of free minds! Depp is just a fascinating character. When
you watch him in the film he’s unbelievably under the age of twenty!
So where do we find peace? Does it represent that bit of complacency we find in ourselves when we die? or we could live to see Neverland?
