There are many things that just didn't sit right with me as I was watching Neverwas. Firstly this movie is a complete rip-off of Neverland, in fact I watched it because I thought it was going to be a story about Peter Pan in some form (Spoiler Alert: It's not). Secondly Ian McKellen can no longer play kooky eccentric crackpot characters as it will forever come off too Gandalphy. And lastly I expected there to be much more magic and fantasy in this movie.Because I had such high expectations I was left disappointed with the way the movie progressed. It was not a terrible movie but if you intend to enjoy it then you need to adjust your expectations. The movie does pickup a little as you head into the second half of the movie, but is that soon enough to save the film...in my opinion no. But it was OK overall.

The great things about films are that they are subjective, if I enjoy a film it doesn't mean that you will enjoy the film or vice versa. I loved Neverwas, the cinematography, the soundtrack, a director who believed and a cast that were wonderful.Neverwas is about a young boy (Zachary) and his father (Nick Nolte, who by the way is excellent) and their loving but dysfunctional relationship. The father writes a book about an ordinary man who rules over a fantasy land called Neverwas. In Neverwas the young boy (Zachary Small) must battle the evil Ghastly and his evil minions. But shortly after writing the book the father falls in to a deep depression, a depression which ultimately deprives him of his life. Zach grows up.A boy becomes a man and he forgets about the childhood stories his father told him, he forgets the good times and remembers the bad. The human psyche is a funny thing, it can easily grant us control of our destiny and with ease take it away. Zach takes a position at a local Mental institute, the very institute that held his father. Here he meets the eccentric schizophrenic Gabriel (played by an wonderful Ian McKellen), Gabriel tells the story of Neverwas and how he is the king of the land. He believes Zachary is there to free him from Ghastly and his minions and tells him that he has but five days before Ghastly will destroy the castle and make Neverwas a cold and harsh land. He also meets with childhood friend Maggie Blake (played by a very charming Brittany Murphy) and together they journey to find not only Neverwas, but Zachs true identity, the one left behind in his forgotten childhood memories. After some digging Zach finds out that Gabriel told about the land of Neverwas ten years before his father wrote the book. Could it be real? Should he believe? One mans dreams turns out to be one mans journey. A journey to find not only the truth, but himself.What is Neverwas? To me? To me. Neverwas is about Hope.

In some ways this film is reminiscent of films such as "The Fisher King" and "They Might be Giants". In both of those films the central idea was that the mad have a separate reality. In this story, the main character, Zachary, is a psychiatrist attempting to understand the nature of his father's madness. He takes a position at a mental institution where his father had been hospitalized. There he meets and becomes friends with an old man, Gabriel, who knew his father while they were both inmates. He comes to realize that the old man's delusion was the basis for his father's inspiration as a children's fantasy writer. After his father is "cured" through the use of psychotropic drugs of his manic-depression, he loses his will to write. His son had been an integral part of the writing process and when that part of his father's life is over, he feels betrayed. Their relationship is destroyed and the boy, now the psychiatrist, is seeking to come to grips with his unresolved pain. Gabriel is convinced that Zachary has come to rescue him from his enemies and draws him back into the fantasy world. The climax comes when Zachary must either choose between the realities or try to integrate them. The ending is logical and works, but it's too easy. Zachary takes his stand and the world accommodates itself, no problem. The ending should have been edgier. They should have had to work at it more. It is unsatisfying but everything that has gone before is is quite good. There is some high-powered talent at work here among the supporting character actors and they alone make it worthwhile.

I'd never heard of this film, then I noticed the DVD and it had some good actors, so what the heck--I rented it. It's absolutely great! A beautifully done, well-acted, touching story with a complex plot, multi-layered characters, excellent suspense, and a lovely magical quality. It's a fairy tale, and like fairy tales, it deals with some dark material. There's a deep irony that the author of a successful children's book, a Tolkheinesque runaway best-seller, that brought people of all ages hope was himself deeply disturbed. And that the child, who modeled the boy hero, saw the book as his bane to the extent he'd never look at it. Then, in his desire to conquer his own inner dragons, he chooses to try to help others without hope--chronic mental patients. In the process he finally finds the courage to reconcile with his own past. It is also ironic and touching that the chronic mental patient, played by Ian MacClellan in a Gandalf-like role, is the one who has the information to heal the psychiatrist. One little plot issue bothered me: The father's book earned enormous royalties, which the psychiatrist inherited but never touched. It turned out that the story ideas had come from the mental patient, to whom the father had never given credit. In all fairness the psychiatrist might at least have used some of the money to benefit the old guy--buy the land for him, set up a trust fund...