Michael Douglas was fantastic in this film. The rest of the cast was good but Douglas was ever-present and carried nearly every scene.
Many of the plot elements seemed ingenious to me when they were first introduced, such as the novel that ballooned to thousands of single-spaced pages or the pompous novelist (Q) at the college's gathering of writers, but as these situations were expanded upon they no longer rang true with me. Maybe my experience as an english major was abnormal, but much of the film just felt wrong to me, and I couldn't really point out exactly why. Many of the big scenes were entirely predictable.
The second half of the film definitely ran out of gas, but luckily by that point I was already drawn in and it didn't really matter. The end felt a bit forced in its attempts to find a neat resolution but that's fairly normal. If it was good enough for Shakespeare's comedies, it's probably good enough for a film about a writing professor's writing. :)
Wonder Boys isn't a classic film. It isn't even a very thought provoking or realistic film. It is, however, quite an entertaining romp where everything can and will go wrong.
I hesitate to make comparisons with "The Big Lebowski," but I would put this film into the same type of loose-knit films that polarize audiences--either they let loose and enjoy where the film takes them, or they're put off by the drug use and free-running plot and feel like walking out. "TBL" is an all-out masterpiece (in my view, at least) because of its perfect dialogue, acting and smart use of history. I like to think that future audiences will see "The Big Lebowski" as a period piece set in the LA of the early nineties. "Wonder Boys" felt like an attempt to create a lightweight "TBL," and that's what they got: a lightweight.
"Wonder Boys" is a good diversion for a few hours and little more. It is highly entertaining at moments, but any take-home message (other than a reminder that Douglas is a great actor) seems forced.
Many of the plot elements seemed ingenious to me when they were first introduced, such as the novel that ballooned to thousands of single-spaced pages or the pompous novelist (Q) at the college's gathering of writers, but as these situations were expanded upon they no longer rang true with me. Maybe my experience as an english major was abnormal, but much of the film just felt wrong to me, and I couldn't really point out exactly why. Many of the big scenes were entirely predictable.
The second half of the film definitely ran out of gas, but luckily by that point I was already drawn in and it didn't really matter. The end felt a bit forced in its attempts to find a neat resolution but that's fairly normal. If it was good enough for Shakespeare's comedies, it's probably good enough for a film about a writing professor's writing. :)
Wonder Boys isn't a classic film. It isn't even a very thought provoking or realistic film. It is, however, quite an entertaining romp where everything can and will go wrong.
I hesitate to make comparisons with "The Big Lebowski," but I would put this film into the same type of loose-knit films that polarize audiences--either they let loose and enjoy where the film takes them, or they're put off by the drug use and free-running plot and feel like walking out. "TBL" is an all-out masterpiece (in my view, at least) because of its perfect dialogue, acting and smart use of history. I like to think that future audiences will see "The Big Lebowski" as a period piece set in the LA of the early nineties. "Wonder Boys" felt like an attempt to create a lightweight "TBL," and that's what they got: a lightweight.
"Wonder Boys" is a good diversion for a few hours and little more. It is highly entertaining at moments, but any take-home message (other than a reminder that Douglas is a great actor) seems forced.