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| Wonder Boys |
| Review Posted 3/27/03 |
 Wonderboys
is a movie about a guy who doubts himself, his life, his
choices, his work and his dreams. Michael Douglas’
Grady Tripp is a writer who has talent and knows it but
worries that it is not enough. His debut novel was such
a success that it has taken him six years to write his
second. His preoccupation with not finishing his second
novel leads him through an unusual series of events involving
a dead dog and a supporting cast whose characters also
lead complicated lives of self-doubt. |
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Movie Overview:
Director: Curtis Hanson
Rating: R
Running time: 112 minutes
Genre: Dark comedy
Cast:
James Leer - Tobey Maguire
Grady Tripp - Michael Douglas
Sara Gaskell - Frances McDormand
Hannah Green - Katie Holmes
Terry Crabtree - Robert Downey Jr.
“Q” - Rip Torn
"Wonder Boys", is a
term which is defined in the film as "someone who's
had great success early in life and then has to face the
fear and insecurity of forever living up to himself"
"An unfinished novel, a stolen car, a murdered pet
and a failing marriage are just a few of the crises piling
up like a logjam in this often hilarious story of bright
promise gone awry.
Purchase
Wonder Boys at Amazon.com
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Cady's Take: |
 "Wonder
Boys", is a term which is defined in the film as "someone
who's had great success early in life and then has to face the fear
and insecurity of forever living up to himself" "An unfinished
novel, a stolen car, a murdered pet and a failing marriage are just
a few of the crises piling up like a logjam in this often hilarious
story of bright promise gone awry.
Michael Douglas gives his best performance in years. Douglas plays
the part of a seemingly washed up college professor named Grady Tripp
who teaches creative writing at a college in Pittsburgh, where the
picture was shot- using many Carnegie-Mellon sites, but can't teach
himself how to get his own life in order. Unkempt Grady is a kind
of outdated hippie who is partial to pot, wears rumpled, probably
smelly clothes, has disheveled hair and sometimes looks like something
the cat dragged in.
The events take place over the long weekend of "Wordfest,"
the school's annual literary shindig that brings to campus writers,
agents, publishers and fans. 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
at this festival. Terry Crabtree, now on the professional skids, comes
to the colloquium with a towering transvestite played by Michael Cavadias
of the rock group Bullett.
Grady’s life seems to be spiraling out of control with his third
wife leaving him; his lover of five years, Sara Gaskell (McDormand)
who is the Chancellor of the school, telling him she is pregnant with
his child and further complicating things is the fact that her husband
Walter Gaskell ( Richard Thomas) is the ingratiating head of the English
Department hence Tripp's boss. Bothering Grady even 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.
Most importantly is the performance of Tobey Maguire. He upstages
Douglas at many points and to do this to an Oscar winning actor, is
a marvel. Maguire plays the part of a suicidal student named James
Leer. James is a compulsive liar and a savant on matters cinematographic.
When it comes to Hollywood facts and trivia he has a bottomless memory.
Early on he recites a list of actors who killed themselves, with precise
dates of their suicides.
The pairing of Douglas and Maguire is inspired. One of the best scenes
in this movie takes place at a party at Sara Gaskell’s house.
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.
The characters are all fractured inside somehow by life's twists and
turns.
I enjoyed this movie’s full character development and its unrestrained
camera movements. It emphasizes character over story. Wonder Boys
builds its comedy by contrasting the respectability, automatically
implied by Grady's position to the immaturity and spontaneity that
drive his personal life. As a movie watcher, the film was wholly entertaining
and consistently gratifying. This was a great film featuring some
notable performances all around, an excellent script, which manages
to simultaneously entertain and motivate those who fear that their
best days are far behind them.
There’s enough interesting characters, plot twists and surprisingly,
laughs, to gently embrace any willing audience member. Their problems
seemed genuine, their reactions all engaging, their emotions running
deep and leading to more questions, a wonderful film to decipher and
enjoy. It's impossible not to like this movie.
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Cady's Rating:
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| Kyle's Take: |
 Katie
Holmes (Joey, Dawson’s Creek) takes a small role as Hannah,
Grady’s student who is hell bent on seducing him. This role
could easily have been played as a mindless, sex-kitten caricature
but Holmes plays it smart and her intelligent delivery and thoughtful
performance sidesteps that danger, making Holmes a stand-out in the
film. Tobey Maguire is fantastic in a role
that is something of a departure from his usual, more wholesome
characters. His portrayal of James Leer is not only intelligent,
but torturously self-conscious as perhaps only writers are. His
equation of art with suffering leads us through a darkly funny performance.
There is a scene in which he delivers – seemingly without
breath – a laundry list of famous suicides (complete with
name, date, and method of choice) with a wry sense of satisfaction
at the shock of his audience. This scene is worth the price of the
rental itself.
Frances McDormand (Fargo) turns in a characteristically
solid performance as Grady’s mistress (and the wife of his
boss, the college chancellor). Sara Gaskell is a woman waiting for
her boyfriend to get it together and grow up. I love Frances McDormand
and I don’t care who she plays because I always get the sense
that the character is real and not just lines on a page.
The only problem I had with this movie were some poorly constructed
camera angles which I found distracting. On the whole this movie
was thoroughly enjoyable and the director Curtis Hanson delivers
a tightly controlled story with actors who developed quirky and
believable performances. Wonderboys is a story about the meaning
of life told using an effective literary movie store. |
| Kyle's Rating:
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| OVERALL RATING: 7.5
/ 10 |
 
Purchase
Wonder Boys at Amazon.com |
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KEY: |
1 Star - All copies
of this DVD should be immediately destroyed.
2 Stars - Wouldn't
even watch this movie if you were getting paid.
3
Stars - Don't waste your time, there are
much better movies.
4 Stars - Wait
until this one comes out on cable.
5
Stars - Worth a rent if nothing better
is in. Recommended only for fans of the genre.
6
Stars - Entertaining, worth your rental
dollar.
7 Stars - A
solid rental, recommended viewing.
8
Stars - A must-see, everyone should enjoy
this movie.
9 Stars - One
of the best movies of the year. Guaranteed winner.
10
Stars - Don't rent, buy! Add this classic
to your personal collection.
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