Zach Riley is a psychiatrist, who leaves a job at a prestigious university, to take up a job at the privately run mental institution, Millwood. What he doesn't reveal at the time of his appointment is that this was the very place where his novelist father, T.L. Pierson, spent many years of his life.
Acting
McKellen's fragile, regal delusion is devastating.
Writing
The novel-within-a-film 'Neverwas' feels genuinely lived-in.
Cinematography
Pacific Northwest autumn as melancholy character.
Director
Joshua Michael Stern
Ian McKellen
Gabriel Finch
Aaron Eckhart
Zach Riley
Brittany Murphy
Maggie Blake
Nick Nolte
T. L. Pierson
Jessica Lange
Katherine Pierson
William Hurt
Dr. Peter Reed
Bill Bellamy
Martin Sands
Alan Cumming
Jake
Vera Farmiga
Eleanna
Michael Moriarty
Dick
Cynthia Stevenson
Sally
Lorena Gale
Judy
Tabitha St. Germain
Receptionist
Tim Henry
Husky Sheriff
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Joshua Michael Stern's directorial debut; he'd later direct the Steve Jobs biopic 'Jobs' (2013). The film sat shelved for two years before its limited release.
Brittany Murphy's character Maggie — a quirky librarian who believes in magic — mirrors how the film itself was received: dismissed as naive, yet strangely sincere. Her performance has gained retrospective poignancy.
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