Wonder Boys (2000)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Professor Grady Tripp's life is an utter mess: his wife has left him, his lover (who also happens to be the chancellor of the university he works at) is pregnant, his editor is visiting him to verify whether his new novel is complete, he must deal with his two most brilliant students: Hannah Green, who has a huge crush on him and James Leer, a rather somber guy with a great talent for writing. Add to the mix a dead dog, a priceless jacket, a stolen car and a nasty case of writer's block and the result is a recipe for disaster.The above mentioned plot is perfect for a delirious comedy of errors, but director Curtis Hanson and screenwriter Steve Kloves take Michael Chabon's renowned book Wonder Boys and they achieve an elegant, witty and exhilarating portrait of a man whose life demands to get fixed before things get worse. This made with an admirable balance between comedy and drama that few movies can accomplish.Some people may claim this is a movie about mid-life crisis, and in some level it is, but it goes beyond that notion and addresses the search of identity in more than one way. Grady, for instance is looking for himself and tries to find out what went wrong and what's gonna happen next. James Leer, a gifted mind rejected by almost everyone will find in Grady the encouragement he might need to come out of his shell. Or Terry Crabtree, Grady's homosexual editor, who's in urgent need of a literary hit in order to stay relevant and keep his job (and he'll be a key element in James' coming of age). In addition to that search, they have to deal with the pressure of not living up the expectations created around them and see how others enjoy the success that possibly has been waiting for them, but they're unable to attain.Wonder Boys avoids favorably most of clichés seen in movies about writers thanks to Kloves' brilliant approach to Chabon's provocative work, remaining faithful to it, but giving in life on its own way. And Hanson's expert hand makes the movie flow with great pace and timing. But it's safe to say Hanson's best quality (as seen in his previous movie L.A. Confidential) is to push the right buttons with his actors. In this case we have people like Katie Holmes, Frances McDormand and Robert Downey delivering superb work, Tobey Maguire who captures James' vulnerability and sadness in a very unique way. And Michael Douglas in a career-best performance as Grady (superior to his Oscar-winning work in Wall Street and close to his Emmy- winning one in Behind the Candelabra). Is hard to imagine someone else playing a very conflicted and distressed man with such sense of humanity and plenty of irony and humor.One thing must be clear: Wonder Boys is a comedy, but not in the traditional sense of the word: it's a sophisticated and smart piece about what we really want and need to do in life and how to do it before it's too late.

Prof. Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) used to be a wonder boy with his first novel. Now his wife has left him, his married mistress Dean Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand) is pregnant, and his literary agent Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) has come with a tranny to press for his next book. He befriends his most gifted depressed student James Leer (Tobey Maguire) who is obsessed with suicides. Hannah Green (Katie Holmes) is another enigmatic student of his. When James shoots Sara's dog, what's a proper professor suppose to do? This cast of oddball characters have a series of wacky adventures. At its core are the individual characters' flaws and neuroses. Michael Douglas is wonderfully droll. He doesn't overplay the craziness, but allow it to overflow him. Tobey Maguire is wonderfully malleable. RDJ is wonderfully funny. Katie Holmes is oddly unreadable. This is probably one of Douglas' most outstanding acting role.

Coming-of- age is not limited to the transition from adolescence to adulthood. A coming-of-age emotionally can occur at any time in one's life. Winner of the AFI award for Movie of the Year in 2001, Wonder Boys features a commanding performance by Michael Douglas as Grady Tripp, a once great novelist who is now a burned out, pot-smoking English Professor at a college in Pittsburgh. Tripp has been working on a massive novel that has grown to 2611 pages for the last seven years, but who has lost the inspiration to complete it.Set on the college campus, Professor Tripp is not having a good day. His wife has just left him, his lover (Frances McDormand), wife of the University Chancellor (Richard Thomas), tells him that she's pregnant, his flamboyant gay editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey, Jr.) is coming from New York for the college's annual writer's festival, and one of his most promising students, James Leer (Tobey McGuire), a brilliant but suicidal young writer, has attached himself to Tripp.Out of these many and varied crises comes a comedy of wit and intelligence that includes such bizarre circumstances as the theft of Marilyn Monroe's fur coat, the unfortunate demise of the Chancellor's dog, a stolen Cadillac, a novel blowing in the wind, and much more. These strange occurrences bring with them the opportunity for Tripp to reassess his life and discover what new directions are open to him. Wonder Boys is brilliantly written, funny, and touching and one of my favorite films of the last decade. It is one of the few films I know that are comfortable with smoking pot and having sex, both gay and straight, not as a manipulative plot device or a display of weakness, but as a part of normal, every day life.

I was the assistant manager of a Crown Book store when "Wonder Boys" was in the theater. Before then, I had never read any Michael Chabon books or really had even heard of him (which is surprising since I was a book store manager). My manager knew that I was gay and he recommended the film to me because of the gay characters. It seems funny in retrospect because I generally get offended when someone assumes I will like something just because there are some gay overtones or characters in it.I saw "Wonder Boys" in the perfect setting. It was an afternoon showing in January, in an empty theater on a cold and snowy day. I had no idea what to expect but absolutely loved the movie. All of the actors were phenomenal. The story was great and involving. I fell in love with the soundtrack.The only thing that confused me is that it made no sense to me that the movie was called "Wonder Boys." It was only upon reading the Michael Chabon novel that it was revealed that the 2000 plus page book Grady was writing was titled "Wonder Boys," as it was about several siblings with the surname of Wonder.I watch this great movie several times a year. The movie alone is worth watching for the great scenes with Vernon Hardapple. "Quit calling me Vernon!" The best thing this movie did, though, was connect me to the books of Michael Chabon. Though "Wonder Boys" the novel is extremely different than "Wonder Boys" the movie, they stand together as my favorite movie and book. I recommend both.