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Wonder Boys [2000]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Wonder Boys is one of those films in which more twists and turns disrupt the life of the hero in one weekend than would bother most of us our whole lives. Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is an aging one-novel wunderkind at a small Pittsburgh college who's labouring on his seven-years-in-the-making, 2000-plus-page second opus with no end in sight. The morning of the college's literary Glastonbury, WordFest, Grady's wife leaves him; that evening, his mistress (Frances McDormand) announces she's pregnant (she's also the Chancellor of the school, as well as the wife of Grady's boss). Grady's voracious editor (Robert Downey Jr) is also in town, transvestite date in tow, determined to read the highly anticipated new book; there's also the nubile student (Katie Holmes), who seems more than willing to ease Grady's pain. And then there's James Leer (Tobey Maguire), the mordant and brilliant writing student who's the catalyst for Grady's lost weekend, which involves a soon-to-be-dead blind dog, a stolen car and the jacket that Marilyn Monroe wore when she wed Joe DiMaggio.

The writing and acting in this film is superb. Douglas, by turns dryly sarcastic and sincerely heartfelt , single-handedly makes up for years of alpha-male posturing as the passive pothead Tripp, and whoever thought of pairing him with the resilient McDormand is brilliant--they convey the complexities and history of their relationship in a single glance or movement. The rest of the cast also are exceptional, with Maguire in a breakthrough performance and Downey at his manic best. The ending may feel a little too pat, but after everything these characters have been through, it seems a just reward. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com


American Beauty
Review date: 2008-07-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

This movie is better than the award winning American Beauty. Wonder Boys is one of those rare modern American movies that really stand out in the pile of relative trash that comes out of there. Along with 'Lost In Translation', this film helped to restore my faith in modern Hollywood. The Michael Douglas character is a gem; his performance shows Douglas aging gracefully and willingly, an accomplishment that only a couple of famous leading men have achieved in recent years.

Wonder Boys is a screwball comedy about a college professor/author who's pushed into maturity (and experiencing a mid-life crisis) by forces beyond his control. Grady Tripp (Douglas) has to face reality as his third wife leaves him and his mistress(Frances McDormand), announces that she's pregnant with their child. It is a a well-acted coming-of-age saga for adults.


The screenplay is fabulous, and the general idea is fantastic.
"So. I guess we just divorce our spouses, marry each other, and have this baby, right? Simple."

"Now, that is a big trunk. It holds a tuba, a suitcase, a dead dog, and a garment bag almost perfectly. That's just what they used to say in the ads."



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Reviews


Not for me
Review date: 2008-01-24 Rating: 2 out of 10

Found the film to be boring and long winded. Personally would not recommend. Thought with Michael Douglas there would be some pace,but dour and miserable all the way through.

A PROPERLY ADULT FILM
Review date: 2007-08-14 Rating: 10 out of 10

Given the modern trend for aggressive physical comedy and unforgiving, punishing dramas, I can see how Wonderboys got lost. It's seems to have come from another era altogether.

The comic and dramatic tone of the film is baggy, the story is rambling and forgiving, and the characters are messy around the edges. All of this feels to me a truer and more generous reflection of adult experience than the overheated melodramas Hollywood regularly serves up as adult fare.

The film's pleasures are also tonal - there's the atmosphere of Pittsburg, the feeling for campus life, and the mood of a certain season, and a certain time of evening. It notices this kind of beauty in a way very few American films do anymore. Sideways, gloriously, was another film that did.

Wonderboys, and Sideways like it, have a kinship with a certain kind of drama the studios used to make in the 1970s. Even if they're a little sweeter than a film like Five Easy Pieces, they share with that movie, and others like it, a proper concern for the fate of people panicking over their choices as they grow old.

Things you put on your legs
Review date: 2007-05-27 Rating: 2 out of 10

I was more than a little bored by this film and wouldn't waste my time watching it again. I couldn't care for any of the characters in this film (not even RDJ's which is going some) so... pants.

Simply Wonderful
Review date: 2007-02-27 Rating: 10 out of 10

An eclectic, electric cast; a brilliant director; a delightful score; a fabulous script and outstanding source material. Many times films which have boasted most these advantages have fallen flat for one reason or another; Wonderboys does not. Wonderboys is great, Wonderboys is marvellous, god damn it all right, Wonderboys is wonderful. It's a terrific movie.
The cast is note perfect and while Michael Douglas carries the film (and does so with a paradoxical mixture of honesty, deception, vulnerability and tough charm) there is a leaning towards an ensemble, which allows sufficient space so that each character is realised with wit and subtlety. With so many good performances in the film it feels almost invidious to single out any one actor for praise over the others however, Robert Downey Jr's precision and comic timing are breathtaking. None of the characters is a let down, Tobey Maguire's oddity and preternatural brilliance is nicely balanced by Katie Holmes' sweetness and Douglas's love for Frances McDormand is wholly credible (though I have to admit I've been at least a little bit in love with her since I first saw her in Mississippi Burning 18 years ago).
Curtis Hanson's direction is a large part of what allows these fine actors to all turn in such stellar performances. He's clearly an actor's director, he's turned out a string of films in which actors have been given every opportunity to show us the range of their skills; L.A. Confidential, The River Wild, The Hand that Rocked the Cradle all have this stamp. What sets Wonderboys above those films, even the magnificent L.A. Confidential, is brilliance of the script.
The script is filled with delicious grace notes and banter as the various characters take each others utterances and play them back at their originator to either comic or dramatic effect.
The story is filled with a seemingly endless series of mishaps, strange events and coincidences. In other hands they could have come across as forced, or too unlikely, however the mixture of this cast, Hanson's skill and the strength of the source material makes even the most unlikely twists seem almost inevitable. Hanson's balancing of the needs of the actors, the story and script is flawless. The source material is Michael Chabon's novel by the same name. The translation from page to screen is deft and the material excised to make this so was chosen with a rare sensibility. Even so I would also recommend a reading of Chabon's book, or indeed anything else he's written, he is one of the best American writers now working.
I've not said anything about the plot and don't intend to, I simply urge you to, rent, borrow, or buy a copy of this film, it's truly Wonderful.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Tobey Maguire
Frances McDormand
Robert Downey Jr.
Katie Holmes
Michael Douglas

Creators:
Michael Douglas (Primary Contributor)
Tobey Maguire (Primary Contributor)
Curtis Hanson (Producer)
Adam Schroeder (Producer)
Lisa Grundy (Producer)
Ned Dowd (Producer)
Scott Rudin (Producer)
Michael Chabon (Writer)
Steve Kloves (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Uca
Manufacturer: Uca
EAN: 0044007846827
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2001-09-03
Universal product code (UPC): 044007846827
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 108 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2000-02-25
Language: English (Original Language)

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