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WONDER BOYS
Movie Review
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You can tell Paramount has no idea how
to market "Wonder Boys." The trailer makes the movie seem like a wacky
gigglefest, which it isn't. The ad campaign shows rumpled star Michael Douglas peering
coyly over eyeglasses and settles for the meaningless tag line, "Undependable.
Unpredictable. Unforgettable."
I don't blame the studio's advertising staff; this worthwhile project will be tough to
promote. They can't sell it as a conventional comedy, because it's too twisted. They can't
claim it's a love story; until the very end, only one supporting character expresses
emotions that could pass for love. Most of the others are as self-centered as the sun,
expecting everyone to revolve around them.
"Wonder Boys" will appeal to people who enjoy a picture with a dark sense of
humor, and who feel academics and literati need to be kicked out of their smug complacency
on a regular basis. Except for moments of labored symbolism and a too cozy ending, the
movie stays sharply focused on its well-chosen targets.
Douglas plays Grady Tripp, a 50-year-old university professor experiencing the worst day
of his life during a Pittsburgh winter.
His wife has just left, this time permanently. An irate bar owner keeps trying to steal
Tripp's car. He's co-hosting a writer's conference where he's about to be upstaged by a
pompous novelist (Rip Torn). Hannah (Katie Holmes), a lovely and talented senior in
Tripp's writing course - who happens to rent a room in his house! - has begun to come on
to him.
An even more gifted writing student, potentially suicidal loner James Leer (Tobey
Maguire), has latched onto Tripp as a mentor. And the university's married chancellor
(Frances McDormand) has just told our hero that she's pregnant with his child.
His second book, which he's grinding out years after his well-received debut, has swollen
to 1,200 ponderous pages, and he's as badly blocked as a creek full of beavers. When the
chancellor's dog sinks its teeth into his calf, his accursed day reaches its nadir - and
then sinks even lower, as he learns that his New York publisher (Robert Downey Jr.
flamboyant as ever), has a yen for both Leer's body and his student novel.
Douglas gained weight for this role, and he looks the part of a man who has settled into
comfortable mediocrity: double-chinned, stubble-faced, sallow, gray of hair and mien. He's
so detached from his own problems that it's a wonder he ever wrote a book, let alone a
penetrating one that has inspired many a college student.
He has an interesting and complicated relationship with Leer, whom Tripp envies, counsels
and admires for his fecklessness. Maguire sometimes holds up his end up these
conversations with Douglas, but not always. His passive, wide-eyed indifference has become
monotonous in just a few screen appearances, even when it's appropriate to the part.
Director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential") and writer Steve Kloves (still best
known for "The Fabulous Baker Boys") have fun watching Tripp wriggle out of
predicaments. They're not quite daring enough in their bleak view, since they let him off
the hook too easily at the end, but they fire well-aimed barbs at the pretensions of
Tripp's colleagues.
They find a wry way to wrap up the loose ends of a subplot about Leer's kleptomania, and
they leave us feeling affection for all the characters, even Downey's sexually omnivorous
publisher.
In fact, they put a mainstream ending on a film that spends most of its time outside the
comfortable territory studio movies usually inhabit. No wonder this picture's hard to
sell: It's tough to set up a blind date with a split personality.
Copyright © Charlotte Observer
