"You find a glimmer of happiness in this world, there's always someone who wants to destroy it."

I was about to fall off to sleep when I was drawn to finally watch this screener of Finding Neverland I had received. I had seen only scant reviews and tried my best to avoid reading much about it before viewing. Something inside me told me that it would be a spectacular film.

Running just 1 hour 40 minutes in length, it is perhaps one of the finest films I have ever had the chance to watch. Perhaps because I knew the story of Peter Pan and had even been in the play myself as a young man, I was drawn to know more about its creator, J.M. Barrie. The struggle of the writer to find their muse is something to which many of us can relate. Like yourself, I struggle with mine constantly. I often engage in childish things and adolescent behaviours in the hopes that I might be transported to the time when I saw the world with that kind of magic. I understand the need for hope expressed in the play itself and, now, I feel a broader kinship with the elements of the writer that were presented in the film. Nothing wonderful was ever achieved without two things: being able to cope with life's unpredictability and having someone who believes in you.

The film works on so many levels -- a coming of age story, a drama, a commentary on the society in which J.M. Barrie lived, and a reflection of the innocence every generation feels it has lost and tries desperately to regain. Johnny Depp will likely be nominated, if not win, the Best Actor award at the Oscars this year. The film has already been named Best Film by the National Board of Review. Normally, I am one who prefers to walk outside the boundaries of the adjudicated tastes of the masses; in this case, I see no reason to doubt the masses for the sake of being different.

I, too, have been captured by this film. As I wipe away the tears, joy mixed with happiness as always, it has given me a great many reasons to want to cherish the things in my life that I am so quick to run from.

I wish only that I had seen this film before the holidays. It might have given me reason to work a bit harder at enjoying them and the time spent with the ones I love the most.