WONDER BOYS

WONDER BOYS (2000) ***1/4

Reviewed 3/3/00

After a career of mostly B-movies such as The Bedroom Window and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Curtis Hanson shone as a director in the deservedly acclaimed L.A. Confidential. He shines equally in his follow-up, Wonder Boys. Based on the novel by Michael Chabon, with a screenplay by Steven Kloves, Wonder Boys has all the eccentricity of a John Irving novel and the occasional charm of Donald Barthelme. The film does sport a literary feel -- not the bad kind, that of stuffy, unimaginative translation -- but the good kind, that of detail and vivid color, much more commonly associated with books than movies. That said, make no mistake, Wonder Boys is light stuff.

Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who was once acclaimed for his book, Arsonist's Daughter (in the real world, it's a title only its author could love). But that was six years ago, and he has not been able to finish his subsequent work, which has been amassing pages ever since. As the annual literary Wordfest event begins at the university, Grady suddenly finds himself abandoned by his wife, visited by his book-hungry editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey, Jr.), and confronted by his mistress, the school chancellor Sara Gaskell, (Frances McDormand), with the news that she is pregnant with his child. To add to his problems, Grady's best student, James Leer (Tobey Maguire) shoots Sara's husband's dog (and boy, does the movie milk the dead dog joke for all it's worth), and Grady winds up babysitting the addled kid as well.

As good as Curtis' direction is, the film just would not have amounted to all that much without its great cast. Douglas is better here than he has ever been, because for once, he is playing a believable human being, not a caricature of greed or wealth. McDormand matches him. Though her role is underwritten, she still resonates as a crucial part of the plot, even when this "part" makes little sense. Downey played his role just prior to his arrest and the ensuing problems. What has happened to him is unfortunate because Downey really displays his subtlety here. If he did all his talking with his body language, his distinctness of character would be the same. Tobey Maguire, an actor who is very limited in range, has finally found a role that takes advantage of his slow, staid deliveries and deadpan disposition. The film also stars Katie Holmes as Hannah Green, a student living in Grady's house. She is more than adequate and never resorts to the cloying that makes many of her other roles unbearable. Richard Thomas plays Sara's husband, Walter, the head of the English Department. The actor, most famous for playing John-Boy on The Waltons, gets to do the least in a nondescript role. He doesn't even get a reaction shot in the whole film.

Wonder Boys' greatest weakness is that the problematic relationship between Grady and Sara is never clarified, and when it is resolved, it is done offscreen. The end is a bit too trite and pat. Wonder Boys also finally ladles on the sentimentality -- at least not the overly cheap manipulative stuff, but the kind that feels somewhat earned. But these days you take what you can get, and sometimes flawed films with some very strong points are more interesting than even films without real failings. Wonder Boys achieves a wonderful, wacky atmosphere through Hanson's creative directing, Dante Spinotti's crisp cinematography, and Dede Allen's on-pace editing. It also has a strong soundtrack without the songs being an excuse to indulge in lazy montage sequences. Most of all though, Wonder Boys' well-drawn characters outweigh the films other flaws and makes you want to visit them again.