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A truly lovely movie about the power of friendship I know very little about the actual circumstances about J. M. Barrie's composition of PETER PAN and so won't join the debate here about how accurate this film is. After all, it states at the opening that it was "inspired" by actual events, and that gives the filmmakers a very wide degree of latitude. And although there are those inside the film's narrative who want to turn Barrie's frienship with a widowed mother and her four young boys into something scandalous, those in control of the making of the film refuse to allow their characters to do so. The film ends up being not about romance, though there is clearly an affection between the characters portrayed by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet, but about true friendship, about the sheer caring about one another because of our shared humanity. The story is simple: famed Edwardian playwright J. M. Barrie, coming off a flop, meets and befriends a widow and her four children, and the imaginative games he plays with the boys becomes the basis for his eternal classic PETER PAN, the title character taking his name from the most resistant and most damaged of the four boys. In truth not a great deal more happens in the film (though what does is weighty and significant), but nonetheless the film has an air of richness and fullness. To the very end, what is most striking is the true and disinterested nature of the affection all feel for one another. Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet are both outstanding in the lead roles, but the cast is strong from top to bottom. There is some irony that Dustin Hoffman plays the theatre impresario Charles Frohman given the fact that he played the character of Captain Hook in the oddish version of the story that starred Robin Williams. I will add a slightly polemical note and state that Depp belongs to that small but select group of people not named Jamie Foxx who did not deserve a nomination for Best Actor more than did Paul Giamatti for SIDEWAYS, an outrage that stands out as the greatest absurdity in all of the years that I have followed the Oscars. Depp is very, very fine, and had Giamatti gotten his incredibly well deserved nomination, I would not have minded in the least Depp getting one as well. But the truth is that this year Jamie Foxx deserves to win, Paul Giamatti was next most deserving of a nomination, and the final three spots should have been fought for by the four who gathered the four other spots. Rant over. This film could, as many have noted, signal the end of a remarkable era. This is the final film released by Miramax under the leadership of the Weinstein's, who are leaving the company after an astonishing run that has produced some of the most sucessful and respected films of the last fifteen years, providing a series of stylish films often set in the past one hundred years. Let's hope that the future holds as many wonderful things for all concerned.