Genre Analysis - Drama
- Ellen Rouse-Barron
- Feb 2, 2017
- 3 min read
A genre is a motion picture category, based on similarities in either the narrative elements or the emotional response to the film. There are a variety of genres, such as: romance, rom-com, comedy, horror, thriller, action, adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, drama, nior, musical and many more. Movies can also be sub-genres of a genre. For example, some horror sub-genres are: slasher, action, comedy, gothic, sci-fi, zombie, monster etc.
‘Finding Neverland’ - Drama
Films that are categorized under the drama genre have several main points that can be recognized in all of them:
One is if the narratives are of serious representations of life. This makes the movie stereotypical of the genre because it is based on true events of how the author J.M. Barrie wrote the play for ‘Peter Pan’, and therefore placing it in the real world and real life situations.
Another is that dramas do not include fantasy in the plot. ‘Finding Neverland’ doesn’t actually involve fantasy in the narrative, again showing it’s of the drama genre, but however is about imagining a fantasy world, and keeping that child-like part about yourself as you grow-up. Therefore slightly breaking the rules of the drama genre, making this aspect of it non-stereotypical.
The genre shows emotions and events at their true height – at their best and worst. ‘Finding Neverland’ really pulls on the heart strings from the beginning to the end. When James Barrie’s play was a failure at the opening night, and he had thought all hope was lost when he had nothing else in the beginning, to his wife leaving him in the middle, to when the mother of the family he had befriended – in which was also his inspiration – was dying at the end. This again shows the stereotypical events of the drama genre.
The plot of a drama also includes a protagonist which is easy to relate to. In this case one of them is Johnny Depp as J.M. Barrie, as he helps a family in need of a friend, encourages their imagination and to keep living like a child – carefree, hopefully and constantly dreaming of magical places. This is relatable as the audience and Johnny Depp’s character wish to hold on to the child within us that is dreaming as we grow older. It is also Freddie Highmore’s character ‘Peter’, as he is a child trying to grow up too quickly and understand the adult world, this is again relatable because as children we all wanted to grow up and be older, and treated like actual people by adults.
They involve some form of journey. In this movie it is an emotional and mental journey, of the love between James and the family, as he urges them to always keep believeing as they grow. The love is ever evolving throughout the movie and peaks at the end. Barrie learns what is right for him to allow himself to grow emotionally but also keep his beloved state of mind as he shares and inspires the Davies family also helping them the grow emotionally and evolve mentally.
They involve a plot twist and/or have a complex plot. The plot twist in ‘Finding Neverland’ is that the happy scenes turn dark and sad as the mother grows ill and is slowly dying. Again stereotypical of the genre as the movie is about the imagination of a child and keeping that mind-set, and childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. Therefore the twist where the mother suffers until her death, which is forced into their lives, breaks the plot.
The protagonist has to be particularly unstable/ vulnerable. In the beginning James Barrie is portrayed as a failure because his play doesn’t do so well at the start of the film, and as it progresses his marriage falls apart even more than what we have seen in the movie, until they divorce. Also he falls in love with the mother and the Davies family, in which he ends up adopting as she dies in the end. This makes James the typical drama protagonist as he is emotionally and mentally unstable due to such events.
The protagonist also has to face a hard decision. James faces many as he spend so much time with the Davies family, which risks his marriage and social image, as the public start to talk about a married man spending so much time with a single mother and her children, what exactly he gets up to. His wife then decides that its either herself of the Davies family, James risks it all for them. Also with his career, where he decides to write a play about fairies and a magical etc. he has to persuade everyone to see it through the child in themselves.
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