I recently got to see Finding Neverland and Ray. Both are Oscar-hopeful biopics, but I had very different reactions to them.
Let's start with Neverland. I loved it. It had the potential to be very sappy and cheesy, but it wasn't. Kate Winslett gives a knockout performance (when doesn't she?), and while I prefer movies where Johnny Depp has latitude to really tear into a role, he was wonderfully subtle and understated. The stagings of Barrie's plays and the fantasy sequences are visually spectacular. The only drawback is the four children. Their acting is fine, especially as far as child actors go, but their dialogue made me want to cringe. Yes, I understand that upper-class British children at the turn of the century were held to stricter codes of behavior and etiquette, but the filmmakers took it way too far. These weren't kids... they were miniature aristocrats. Still, it's a minor fault in an otherwise great movie.
Ray, on the other hand, had a terrific performance of young Ray Charles, and an even better one by Jamie Foxx as adult Ray, but the movie sucked overall. Amazing how such a fascinating life (and incredible music) could be such a boring movie. The film takes place mostly from 1948-1964, and it felt like it was moving in real time. I began to panic at the 2 1/2 hour mark, since we were still 40 years from the present, but then the movie draws to a jarringly-abrupt conclusion. Foxx does his best to bring life to the movie, and I can't see anyone beating him come Oscar time, but his performance is just not enough to salvage Ray.
P.S. Anyone who does see Ray, note that when Foxx is shirtless at one point, his nipple looks like a vagina. I'd never seen anything like it before. Are pussy-nips a common occurrence?