Wonder Boys (2000)

I'm not quite sure what I expected from this film, but it wasn't what I wanted or expected. The title, theme, and cast, even the opening scene in the classroom lead me to believe this was going to be a different version of Dead Poets Society. I was wrong, this film is all about Michael Douglas, and his character is just not interesting to me. The film won an Oscar for best song with Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed" and was nominated for two others for screenplay and editing. It was also on the AFI Annual Top 10 List.

The film is centered around Professor Tripp [Michael Douglas] who has just impregnated the [married] Dean Sara [Frances McDormand]. He wrote a fiction book that was on the best seller list, but has not been able to finish his next work for years. His publisher, Terry [Robert Downey Jr.] is in town and wants to know how it is coming. His wife just left him and he is renting a room to a student Hannah [Katie Holmes]. To make things more complicated an odd student with a lot of talent, James [Tobey Maguire] is following him around.

The film is a dark comedy, more of a dram-edy because nothing is laugh out loud funny, and many of the funny things come at the expense of one of the main characters. I really wanted there to be more to this movie than following Professor Tripp around. A pothead professor living off the fame of a single best seller is not the kind of movie I can really get into. This film had more acclaim but I really liked Solitary Man a lot more [and I only gave that a 6/10].

Vote: 4/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185014/

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