NEVERWAS

US, 2005, 103 minutes, Colour.
Aaron Eckhart, Ian Mc Kellen, Brittany Murphy, Nick Nolte, William Hurt, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, Michael Moriarty.
Directed by Joshua Michael Stern.

Neverwas is an unusual story. The film was written and directed by Joshua Michael Stern. It has a very strong cast led by Aaron Eckhart as a psychiatrist who has trained and has a position at Cornell but he goes to a small local institution looking for a job. It emerges that he is the adult Zachary, whom the audience sees as a child, living in a fantasy world, discovering his father hanging, who resents his father and his story of Neverwas. He has come to the institution because this is where he is depressed father spent time.

Nick Nolte appears in flashbacks as the depressed novelist, loving his son, creating stories in which his son is the hero but imposing them on his son. Jessica Lange has some scenes as Zach’s mother, a brittle but emotional woman. Brittany Murphy appears as a childhood friend of Zach who is investigating never was and the novel and the background.

The other central characters played by Ian Mc Kellen. He does the voiceover, and raises the issues leading the audience into the world of Neverwas as well as to the world of Zach. He has been in institutions for 40 years, knew Zach’s father, shared his fantasy story with him, the story which became the book.

At the hospital, William Hurt portrays the doctor in charge, Alan Cumming portrays a disturbed patient.

The film sounds as if it might be a family or a children’s film. However, given the psychological background and the depressive father, it is not..
The film reaches its climax when Zach and Gabriel meet each other in Neverwas, a makeshift kingdom in the woods on a mountain.

An imaginative film with a difference.

1. The title? Parallels with Neverland? The world of fantasy and myths? The contrast with reality?

2. An American setting for this fantasy? Town, houses, families?

3. The themes, imagination and madness, psychological illness, depression? Zach and his childhood, relationship with his father, his father writing the book, Zach and his rebellion against his father, his father’s depression, in institutions, meeting Gabriel, sharing with him, the suicide and Zach seeing his body? Gabriel in institutions over the decades, living in his imagination, finding Neverwas? Mental institutions, therapy?

4. The fairytale where madness is reality? Gabriel, Zach, Zach’s father?

5. The institution, real, the rooms, therapy meetings? Comparison with outside, the mountain and the forest, the makeshift castle in the woods? The musical score?

6. Gabriel’s voiceover, his comments, the focus on Zach, rescuer, for his own liberation, for Zach’s liberation?

7. Zach as a boy, living in the fantasy, from his father and the book? His mother? Her concern for her son, the world of Neverwas?

8. Zach, growing up, his training, his position and Cornell? Memories of his father? The flashbacks? His relationship with his mother, her emotions, the anniversary of her husband’s death, her concern about Zach, the phone calls, his visits with Jane?

9. Driving for the job, encountering the doctor, his wanting to work in the institution, his reasons, his father’s presence, going to the group’s, meeting the various individuals, working with them, Gabriel and his not talking, his opening himself to Zach? The encounter with Jane, her research, the book, her knowledge about his father, memories of the past, the visit to his mother? The alienation because of what she was doing? Her writing? The personal relationship, love for her, sherry? The end, looking for never was, her having the map, guiding him to find it?

10. The group, the various problems, discussions, reactions, the man and his fiancée coming to visit, his not wanting it, despair when she came?

11. The doctor, his work, discussions with Zach, finding out the truth, sending him away?

12. The character of Gabriel, his discussions with Zach, his memories? His inventing Neverwas?

13. The buildup to the climax, Gabriel getting out, Zach and his search for Neverwas, Jane and her help? The mountain, the drawing? Going through the tunnel, entering the woods? Finding the castle? Finding Gabriel, the talk, Gabriel and his explanation about his past, theabuse, telling the story, sharing it with Zach’s father, the novel? Neverwas his salvation, retreat into imagination? The explanation of the king? His dressing like the king?

14. The arrival of the police, guns, threats? Eviction notices? The mundane reality of the police? Gabriel in his fantasy? Zach deciding to share it, talking to the police, helping Gabriel in his quest? The police and their retirement? The danger of the explosives, Jane? Zach and his anxiety, discovering they were all made of sugar?

15. Zach talking with Gabriel, in his ordinary clothes, Gabriel and his calm, accepting the reality? Zach and being able to go on to face the realities of his life?