There’s no such thing as a true story in Hollywood. And there never can be. Real life, in the main, doesn’t have the peaks and troughs that a movie needs to sustain two hours and satisfy an audience. So when you walk into a cinema these days to see a move based/inspired on true events, you know that most of what you’re going to see is a paper thin representation of the truth.

Last night I saw Finding Neverland. It was a beautiful, tear jerking, bittersweet film. I really enjoyed it, and I recommend you all go out and see it.

Of course, after seeing the film I wanted, needed to know how accurate it actually was. So I went tomy favourite web-site – Wikipedia. Here’s the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.M.Barrie

Further research revealed the following:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041119.html

and:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14805004&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=tragic-story-behind-peter-pan–name_page.html

I’ll admit, it takes the edge off the film… but that’s real life for you. It blurs the edges of any fantasy.

Still, in spite of the truth, Finding Neverland is worth seeing. No matter how fictionalised, the core themes of the film – magic, belief, love and tragedy – are worth watching.