Release Date:
Friday, February 25, 2000
Is Michael Douglas on a roll, or what? First he lands Maxim cover girl Catherine Zeta-Jones; now he hands us a winning, intelligent screen comedy. The follow-up movie from LA Confidential director Curtis Hanson, Wonder Boys is short on wham-bam action, long on insight and belly laughs.
Douglas plays Grady Tripp, a famous novelist and college professor battling writer’s block, courting the dean’s wife, and rolling big, fat joints the whole way. The movie opens on a bad day for Grady. His trophy wife leaves him. His codeine-popping New York editor is in town, harassing him for his newest (and unfinished) novel. And, with an assist from his prize student, played to the quirky hilt by Tobey Maguire, he manages to kill the dean’s dog. What follows is an unlikely odyssey as teacher and student rediscover the pleasures of life: adventure, loyalty, love, and chemical indulgence.
With Wonder Boys, Douglas breaks out of a recent cycle of Angry White Male roles to create a middle-aged burnout so likeable, you want to party with him. As Grady’s editor, Robert Downey Jr. is a hedonistic riot, and Rip Torn, playing a pompous best-selling novelist, is at his condescending best. Not exactly a drop-dead Maxim babe, Academy Award–winning actress Frances McDormand, as the dean’s wife, is charming and sexy. OK, so nothing blows up—let’s call it a thinking man’s guy movie, and give it extra points for the dead dog.
Douglas plays Grady Tripp, a famous novelist and college professor battling writer’s block, courting the dean’s wife, and rolling big, fat joints the whole way. The movie opens on a bad day for Grady. His trophy wife leaves him. His codeine-popping New York editor is in town, harassing him for his newest (and unfinished) novel. And, with an assist from his prize student, played to the quirky hilt by Tobey Maguire, he manages to kill the dean’s dog. What follows is an unlikely odyssey as teacher and student rediscover the pleasures of life: adventure, loyalty, love, and chemical indulgence.
With Wonder Boys, Douglas breaks out of a recent cycle of Angry White Male roles to create a middle-aged burnout so likeable, you want to party with him. As Grady’s editor, Robert Downey Jr. is a hedonistic riot, and Rip Torn, playing a pompous best-selling novelist, is at his condescending best. Not exactly a drop-dead Maxim babe, Academy Award–winning actress Frances McDormand, as the dean’s wife, is charming and sexy. OK, so nothing blows up—let’s call it a thinking man’s guy movie, and give it extra points for the dead dog.