The
critically acclaimed director of the L.A. Confidential had a lot
of pressure on his shoulders as critics and fans eagerly awaited Wonder
Boys, his latest feature project. Wonder Boys is a wonder
through and through, not necessarily because it makes a grandiose
statement, but because it makes a universal statement about that place
in life’s journey when we find ourselves at an emotional and spiritual
crossroads. This crossroads can come upon anyone at any age, and it
marks a point where a life’s purpose seems shrouded in a fog of
confusion and indecision. We seem to go in circles, often making fools
of ourselves, and sometimes driving ourselves crazy as we urge to find
some new direction. To choose where we are going ultimately takes an
emotional, psychological, and spiritual survey of where we are, a pause,
if you will, that allows us to fully experience the events and people
who touch our lives.
Michael Douglas delivers the greatest performance of his career in
playing Grady Tripp, a creative writing professor at a prestigious
liberal arts college. Grady has long been riding on the fame of his
debut novel. His inability to deliver a sequel after several years of
writing and over two thousand pages of material begin the rumor that he
doesn’t really have it in him anymore. His editor, Terry Crabtree
(Robert Downey Jr.) whose career is also waning, comes to town in hopes
of reading Grady’s manuscript. Grady’s wife had just left him, and
his long time mistress (Frances McDormand), the chancellor of the
university and Grady's department head’s wife, had just informed him
that she is pregnant with his child. An attractive and talented female
student to whom he is renting a room in his house is hitting on him, and
a bizarre, young male student, James Leer (Tobey Maguire) adds another
set of complications to Grady’s already muddled life.
The stellar cast lead by Douglas allows director Curtis Hanson to
weave great performances into a subtly understated pathos. Hanson has
noticeably matured in his ability to see his actors through a wide range
of emotions delicately balanced with the irony of the situations in
which they find themselves. Both humor and poignancy arise out of tangibly authentic humanity. The characters on the screen are as flawed
and odd as they can possibly be, yet the combination of writing and
acting makes them so close to home that we identify with them completely
and immediately.
James Leer, the strange and reclusive student and brilliant writer,
through his oddness and imaginative "stories" about his life,
begins to pry open Grady’s marijuana addled eyes. The illusions of
self-pity and entropy that keep Grady from making real choices begin to
strip away. Grady has lost the courage to let his heart and instinct
guide him. He can no longer plunge into experience he is really yearning
for, but ultimately, he must find that path, and he must follow it
despite its uncertainty. If he doesn’t, he is doomed to the life of a
hack succoring his old glory and talented young students.
One of the interesting, powerful features of Wonder Boys is
that character complications sometimes come from their sexual
intertwining, some of it in homosexual relationships. The homosexual
involvement is woven in without preaching or obvious agenda, and merely
as a part of the complex reality we deal with as human beings in
relationships.
Even Terry Crabtree, the character that almost sinks to the cliché
of a power driven literary editor/agent, comes across as fully human.
Though craven and slick at times, he has the skill and finesse to bail
out the writers he champions. Certainly, the editor is feeding of the
creativity and gifts that far surpass his, but, on the same token, Grady
(the old talent) and James (the new talent) would never have survived
without Terry’s intervention.
Wonder Boys is a beautiful mix of life’s questions, mysteries,
comedies, and constant opportunities for rediscovery. Sometimes, life
challenges us to take a plunge that will remove us from all that is
familiar and force us onto a completely new ground. If we want to
continue to feel the lightness of spirit and revel in a sense of the
deep, calm tingle of destiny, we must dive in.
