Wonder Boys

Watch: Wonder Boys

2/22/20001h 51m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ Undependable. Unpredictable. Unforgettable. ~

Overview:

Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.

Director:

Curtis Hanson

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$35,000,000.00

Revenue:

$33,426,588.00

Key words:

adultery
infidelity
robbery
based on novel or book
police
pennsylvania, usa
winter
midlife crisis
professor
college
liar
coming of age
marijuana
snow
writer
university
drugs
dog
bisexual man
drag
pittsburgh, pennsylvania
gay theme
small town america

Cast

Michael Douglas

~ as ~

Grady Tripp

Tobey Maguire

~ as ~

James Leer

Frances McDormand

~ as ~

Sara Gaskell

Robert Downey Jr.

~ as ~

Terry Crabtree

Katie Holmes

~ as ~

Hannah Green

Rip Torn

~ as ~

Richard Knox

~ as ~

Vernon Hardapple

Jane Adams

~ as ~

Oola

Michael Cavadias

~ as ~

Miss Sloviak

Richard Thomas

~ as ~

Walter Gaskell

View full cast & crew

Reviews (2)

Peter McGinn
Written 4 year(s) ago
9
I have to believe I saw this movie a year or two after it came out, but I had no feelings of deja vu as I watched it, so perhaps not. I usually have very little patience for movies about writers because I am one, and I get tired of them bringing up writers’ block, which I don’t believe exists, or else they have the character become wildly successful in record time. There are a lot of struggling actresses and musicians and waitresses in movies, but writers often get fast-track succes.

Anyway, I wander off topic. I enjoyed the movie with its range of quirky characters, and minor plot twists. There are only a couple of two-dimensional characters; the rest are given depth, even a few who don’t have a lot of screen time. It shows what can be achieved with a good ensemble cast and a decent script.
CinemaSerf
Written 1 year(s) ago
7
"Prof. Tripp" (Michael Douglas) hasn't his troubles to seek. He hasn't been able to follow up on his first novel for almost seven years - much to the chagrin of his agent "Terry" (Robert Downey Jr); his third wife has left him and he is about to father a child with his (married) boss (Frances McDormand) at the university where he works. His writer's block isn't really much helped by the omnipresence of his star pupil "James" (Tobey Maguire) nor by his increasingly debilitating pot habit. It's the man's mid life crisis from hell, but can he navigate a way out of this and keep some semblance of his self respective and, maybe even his career! Meantime, his protégé is having a few issues of his own - not least because he accidentally shot the principal's dog and he is the object of the amorous attentions of the ambisextrous "Terry" too! There's quite a decent dynamic between Douglas and Maguire as both men have to come to terms with their own problems and with their growing reliance on and frustration of each other and there is plenty of witty dialogue that is more complexly structured and subtly potent at times. The narrative is quite tightly packed into just one weekend, and that helps keeps the momentum going as the characters develop in quite a plausible - and not always likeable - fashion. Luckily, the one-dimensional Katie Holmes appears only sparingly as the plot thickens to a nicely bubbling stew at the end. It's a decent reminder that Douglas could act, given a strong story and script, and he shows us that well here with this superior ensemble drama.