What is Neverwas, you might be asking yourself. And if you are asking yourself that, perhaps it's better than you don't know. Seriously. This is like a Lovecraftian horror-type-deal, where the burden of terrible knowledge beyond human comprehension may be one you're better off not knowing. It's not so much a hornet's nest waiting to be prodded so much as it is a land mine that's located somewhere people rarely tread. Also it's a land mine planted by people you would usually trust. Neverwas has far too great a cast considering what a mess it is. Not only does Sir Ian McKellen grace this absolute car wreck with his presence but the ensemble is rounded out by Aaron Eckhart, Brittany Murphy, William Hurt and Nick Nolte. Nolte is a feted children's author who struggled with depression and ultimately killed himself; Eckhart is his son who becomes a psychiatrist and goes to work at the mental institution his dad stayed in. During his time there he discovers the fantasy stories his dad wrote were actually transcribed from the delusions of McKellen's schizophrenic Gabriel Finch. But are they delusions??? Yes. It's like K-Pax, except with slightly ropey kid's fantasy stories instead of aliens, and with an equally bright cast but a far more useless writer and director. This is a film that has 12% of Rotten Tomatoes, signalling universal derision. Again, McKellen does his best with the material. It's just the material is ham-fisted, pretentious and more than a little problematic in how it thinks mental illness works. By comparison, The Da Vinci Code looked like a dream... What's your favourite Ian McKellen performance? Share it down in the comments?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
