“For those that don’t know, this is how it began,” opens
Neverwas, a solid enough
fantastical-minded drama which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and
was acquired by Miramax, but then
probably deemed too reminiscent in narrative and
lacking slightly in comparative lacquered whimsy to something like Finding Neverland to garner the P&A
muscle of a wide theatrical release.
The feature debut of writer-director Joshua Michael Stern, the
film stars Aaron Eckhart (a Golden Globe nominee for
Thank You For Smoking)
as Zach Riley, a psychiatrist who returns to
Millwood
Psychiatric Hospital, the place where
his father, famous children’s novelist T.L. Pierson (a gravelly-voiced Nick
Nolte), committed suicide decades ago. The mysteries of Zach’s tragic early
life, contained within the pages of his father’s titular masterwork, are slowly
revealed to the psychiatrist with the assistance of a wide-eyed, allegedly schizophrenic
patient named Gabriel Finch (Ian McKellen). While Zach is reluctant to get
drawn into any analysis or discussion about his father’s Tolkien-esque tome,
Finch insists it’s all real, and that Zach has had a spell cast on him to make
him forget his place as ruler of the magical kingdom.
Elements of the aforementioned Neverland commingle with bits and pieces of What Dreams May Come, Instinct,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and
other tales of psychiatric munificence. Philip Glass’ mesmerizing score
provides Neverwas with a nice aural backdrop,
and if director Stern dips into saturated-frame affectation a bit too often (all
sunlit windows and canted slow-motion), it’s only about half as annoying as one
might typically find it because of all the fine actors more than pulling their
weight here. Abetting Stern is a fabulous cast that includes the aforementioned
players as well as Jessica Lange as Zach’s fretful mother Katherine; William
Hurt as Zach’s new boss, Dr. Peter Reed; and Brittany Murphy as a botanist grad
student and possible love interest, Maggie. Rounding out the cast in small cameo
roles are Alan Cumming, Michael Moriarty, Vera Farmiga, Cynthia Stevenson and
Bill Bellamy.
For fairy tale fans and those predisposed to enjoy drama of
uplift, Neverwas is a decent enough flick,
certainly worthy of a rental. There is essentially only one question at the
heart of the movie, and Stern takes the long way around the maypole in actually
addressing it, meaning that the climax requires a silly confluence of events
and parties. Since all that provides the audience with more time with McKellan,
though, one doesn’t too terribly mind.
Presented in a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, Neverwas comes with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround
sound audio track, and French and Spanish subtitles. Apart from a gallery of
preview trailers for other Buena Vista DVD releases like The Invisible and Wild Hogs,
there are unfortunately no supplemental extras on the DVD, which is housed in a
regular Amray case. To purchase the film via Amazon, click here. B- (Movie) C (Disc)
