Filmic Friday 201

When Z and I first started dating, I was on an all-fantasy diet and avoided literary fiction like the plague. I was legitimately annoyed by the prospect of reading books without magic, without elves or fairies or dragons, and the idea of a movie based on one of these books? It wasn't going to happen.

And so it didn't.

For years.

I avoided one of Z's favorite movies, based on a book by Michael Chabon, for twelve and a half years. Until last Friday.

This is, in fact, a great movie

Now, if you're an animal lover, you may want to give this one a pass, since there is a scene involving a family pet and a firearm, but this is a great film.

Wonder Boys is the story of writer Grady Tripp, an author working on his followup to his bestseller first novel. It's not going so well...

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And also his wife has left him because he's sleeping with the Chancellor of the college he's working for (whose husband is the Dean of the English department, no less!), his editor is on the verge of losing his job if he doesn't have a new bestseller to present, his best student might be a better writer than him, and he's having blackouts.

This is a star-studded movie, to be sure. With Tripp being played by Michael Douglas, student James Leer played by Tobey Maguire, Editor Terry Crabtree played by a Robert Downy Jr, live-in-student Hannah Green played by Katie Holmes, Chancellor Sara Gaskell played by Frances McDormand, and fellow author Q played by Rip Torn, this is a stacked film. Everyone is a believable character in the sullen winter of Pittsburgh, which makes the madcap adventures and comedy from later on much funnier.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a dead dog in this movie, but it does serve a narrative purpose. It's the first in a long line of real decisions that Tripp has to make in order to 1) not go to jail, and 2) keep Sara. I appreciated that this movie didn't go with certain tropes like "marriages must be saved" or "love conquers all". Everyone's kind of a screwup. Everyone's kind of awful. Everyone's kind of brilliant.

And everyone's a good actor.

Like... a really good actor.

If you're looking for a movie on the nature of choices with good writing and good acting, check out Wonder Boys. And if you're still thirsty for more, then go read the book by Michael Chabon!

As ever

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