James Barrie and the Llewellyn Davies family:
Sylvia Llewellyn Davies: Kate Winslet
Peter Llewelyn Davies: Freddie Highmore
Jack Llewelyn Davies: Joe Prospero
George Llewelyn Davies: Nick Roud
Michael Llewelyn Davies: Luke Spill
He was looking for the inspiration he had lost. They were mourning for the family they had once had. What began as a chance encounter will forever change their lives. (From the trailer
The relationship between James Barrie and the Llewellyn Davies family is romanticised and simplified to fit modern tastes, for the movie "Finding Neverland". In real life, there were five Llewellyn Davies boys, Peter being barely a babe in arms. Sylvia was still married to Arthur, a solicitor, who viewed the intrusion of "Uncle James" into his family with suspicion. When Arthur died in 1907 of cnacer, followed by Sylvis three years later, James Barries made himself the boys' unofficial guardian, so that they became the children he was never able to have.
In the movie version, Sylvia's husband has died and she and the children are still in mourning, especially Peter, for whom the world is now a grey and cold place. James Barrie meets them in the park and is intrigued by the children and their mother's grace, despite their grief. He takes up the challenge to help Peter rediscover childhood and a belief in magic by giving free reign to his own. He invents wonderful games of pirates and Indians and invents the character of Peter Pan. The Llewellyn Davies family spark his creativitiy and he writes a most wonderful play that is enjoyed by children and adults alike. But on the first night of the play, "Peter Pan", Sylvia is gravely ill and James abandons make-believe for a moment, to support her. In the end, it is James' chidlike imagination that saves the children from despair when Sylvia dies. Like Peter Pan with Wendy, James is half in love with Sylvia, and with her family of Lost Boys.