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Wonder Boys (22-Feb-2000)
Director: Curtis Hanson Writer: Steve Kloves From novel: Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon Keywords: Drama, Teachers Film adaptation of the Michael Chabon novel of the same name examines an English professor's fragmented personal and professional life.
ABSTRACT
Grady Tripp, English professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and aspiring writer, saw his status as a "wonder boy" earned with the publishing of his first novel seven years earlier squandered by an intense episode of writer's block. Now, with the departure of his third wife and the ignominious news that his married mistress -- who happens to be Carnegie Mellon's chancellor -- is pregnant with his child, Grady must decide where to go next, hampered in his quest for a fulfilling life by his vices and questionable moral compass.
[watch trailer]
REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 8-Jun-2007) A lot of what plays
out in 'Wonder Boys' resembles what happens when you tinker with a
jack-in-the-box. Things pop up unexpectedly, and for the film's
characters, sometimes in a pleasing manner and sometimes not. The film
brings up the stereotype that has followed many writers around their
entire lives. The booze, the womanizing, the drugs, and their sometimes
whacked out personality that have inspired such great works in the
literary field and the whole film is a merry-go-round of hilarious pop
culture with redemption as its true message. Set mostly in Pittsburgh,
Michael Douglas gives his best performance in years, probably since his
Oscar winning turn for best actor in 1987's 'Wall Street', as a
seemingly washed up college professor named Grady Tripp who teaches
writing but can't teach himself how to get his own life in order. He
carries on an affair with two women from opposite ends of the spectrum.
One is with a student named Hannah Green (Katie Holmes) and the other
is with the institution's Chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand).
Plaguing Grady is the fact that he has promised his long time editor
Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) that he would have a book completed
for him in time for their next meeting when Terry flies in from New
York City. Bothering Grady further is a writer named Quentin "Q"
Morewood (Rip Torn), who cranks out a novel every eighteen months which
causes Grady to be extremely jealous. One night at a party at the
Chancellor's home, Grady comes face to face socially with one of his
students named James Leer (Tobey Maguire). James is the deadpan weirdo
that most of his class have come to despise. He writes obtuse material
that is somehow absorbing, shocking and funny and carries his writer's
technique into his real life. He often makes things up, such as the
fictional town that he says he's from, as he goes along to tell others
about his life and it all seems incredibly plausible, the mark of a
successful writer.....I suppose. At the party, James gets into some
serious mischief involving a jacket that used to belong to Marilyn
Monroe, a vicious blind dog that meets with the discharge from a
firearm and the fact that he has dragged his beloved professor through
all of it at the same time. The after math of this bizarre social
gathering is sort of what makes 'Wonder Boys' the entertaining film
that it is. It starts off rather slowly but propels itself like
fireworks when it finally gets going. For the average movie person with
upstanding tastes, 'Wonder Boys' is a film that may be hard to focus
on. Don't think that the title means all the characters are WONDERful
in terms of their upstanding traits. You have to accept its moral abyss
in order to enjoy it. The characters are all fractured inside somehow
by life's twists and turns. The sex, the downbeat feeling that shows
why few smile in this film and the messed up activities at times
resemble a frat party and all the while you somehow want to be in on
the action which is strangely seductive. Curtis Hanson, who directed
and co-wrote 1997's 'L.A. Confidential', does a complete 180 here in
brilliant fashion. The material in 'Wonder Boys' couldn't be more
different. 'L.A. Confidential' was a hard boiled, hard nosed and hard
edged film about police corruption with zero tolerance for humour while
'Wonder Boys' relies entirely on humour, sometimes the kind that feels
like you've hit your funny bone on something hard but with so many
wonderful performances on the plate, why leave anything on it. One of
the most intriguing scenes has Douglas on the phone with the
Chancellor's husband (Richard Thomas), telling him that he's in love
with his wife and all the while acting stone faced through it. For
reaction purposes, one of the most difficult challenges for an actor is
to do a successful phone conversation as you have to act like you'll
never know what you'll hear and Douglas pulls it off superbly. More
importantly than that is the performance of Tobey Maguire. He upstages
Douglas at many points and to do this to an Oscar winning actor, is a
marvel. It's probably the best upstaging from a young performer on a
veteran since Juliette Lewis did it many times to Robert De Niro in
1991's 'Cape Fear'. This is Maguire's breakthrough role as performances
in 'Pleasantville' and 'The Cider House Rules' have sort of warmed him
up for his first truly spectacular role and this is it. He and Douglas
could be Oscar bound next year for these truly human performances of
candour and sharp wit. 'Wonder Boys' is hardly conventional film
making. It's genius layered with sensational off beat characters who
are the real wonder! Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
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