Movie – The Wonder Boys

The Wonder Boys (2000) – An English professor faces the shambles his life has become following his successful first novel when he tries to help one of his students.

Directed by: Curtis Hanson   Starring: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes, Rip Torn, Richard Thomas, Alan Tudyk

I had never heard of this movie and in all likelihood neither have you.  Based on the novel by Michael Chabon, the movie piqued my interest because it’s about my hometown of Pittsburgh.  Even better it was shot in and around the city.  What I discovered was a wonderful little movie.

Douglas’s character is stuck.  He doesn’t really want to acknowledge that he’s stuck and he has no idea what to do next.  So for most of the movie he just flounders in the flood waters of his life.  And the flood is still rising.  Maguire is his brilliant, if decidedly weird, student.  Holmes is a talented young writer with more than a bit of a crush on her professor.  McDormand is the Dean who is married to the head of the English department(played with just a touch of uber nerd by Thomas).  She’s also pregnant with the professor’s baby.  Then there’s a second novel that’s seven years over due and the editor, played with a wonderful light touch by Downey Jr., who just brings a certain level of chaos with him.

It is an amazing cast working with a script that has no pretensions about itself.  Chabon loves Pittsburgh and the screenplay grabs onto that anchor.  (For the locals, as the party at the Dean’s house breaks up, listen for someone describing the icy conditions as “slippy”.  Classic yinzer).  There’s nothing over the top here.  It’s quiet and cerebral and warm and funny.  It’s also a huge change of pace for director Curtis Hanson.  His last move had been “L.A. Confidential” and this movie couldn’t be more different.

Why I Liked It: The cast is worth the price of admission.  Plus, Pittsburgh.

Why You Will Like It: Characters that strike you as real, who are pushed to making some effort in their lives.  Efforts that bring them through in the end.  Some wonderful dialogue and several outstanding images.

The movie was a flop when it debuted (twice.  The studio had no idea what to do with it and re-launched it during the Oscar nomination season hoping the names in the cast might gain some traction for the movie).  It failed to make its production costs back but is generally well reviewed.

My heart would have given it one more star.  A classic “little” movie.  Which I love so much.

Rating: **** Recommended