ANYTHING Matthew Pinsent can do, a bunch of hard-bitten, male film critics can do better. And I'm not talking about winning an Olympic rowing gold medal.

The problem was that the house lights came up too quickly at the end of a screening of moving true-life drama Finding Neverland for 50 or so regional film writers.

A hectic four-day schedule meant there was little time to indulge in a lengthy appraisal of the end credits.

No sooner had they started to roll than the auditorium was bathed in light, catching the assembled hacks by surprise.

Many in the audience seemed to have something in their eye. Or their heads dipped beneath the backs of seats as they scrabbled for a dropped pen or notebook.

At least I think that's what was going on, because I was having trouble with my contact lenses at the time.

Yes, Finding Neverland is one big blubfest. But this is not a shallow, sentimental journey. The tears that may will be shed during and after this film will be justified thanks to a truly well written, beautifully acted and sad story.

And the tale it tells is the one that inspired one of the most popular stories of the last 100 years Peter Pan.

Set at the turn of the last century, Finding Neverland sees playwright JM Barrie (Depp) struggling to satisfy a) his patient producer Charles Frohman (Dustin Hoffman) with a play that will pull in the punters and b) his cold fish of a wife Mary (Radha Mitchell), with whom he has a distant relationship.

Then hope and inspiration suddenly arrive when he meets widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Winslet) and her four sons in Kensington Park.

A friendship develops not just between the two adults, but also between Barrie and the boys one of whom is called Peter that grows stronger when it becomes clear that Sylvia is seriously ill.

Finding Neverland is heartbreaking stuff, but it skilfully avoids all those disease-of-the-week cliches by dealing with people we genuinely care about. It really is almost too much to bear when the already fatherless boys face losing their mother too, and that a strict Edwardian society as well as Sylvia's overbearing mother (Julie Christie) tries to keep them apart from a man who becomes more than a substitute parent to them.

Depp after doing Cockney in From Hell and Keith Richards in Pirates Of The Caribbean affects an acceptable Scottish accent, but also goes about his role with aht sense of child-like fun and wonder that marked him out in films such as Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Benny And Joon.

There is also already an Oscar buzz surrounding this film, thanks to excellent turns from Winslet and Christie.

But the young actors Joe Prospero, Nick Roud, Luke Spill and particularly Freddie Highmore as Peter deserve special mention, because Finding Neverland is a celebration of childhood and innocence, and their contribution to that is vital. So, order that extra box of tissues, settle back and find your inner child... 8/10

Finding Neverland

Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet

Director: Marc Forster

PG, 101mins

Showing at: UGC and Cineworld from today