Wonderland (2003)
It's really easy to dis "Wonderland"
if you want to be mean. Neophyte Filmmaker James Cox
is like a kid in a candy store and by that I mean
he is like a film student with a budget. He fills
his film with so many film-school-dropout transitory
moments that it nearly makes the viewer nauseous.
He flips through songs on the soundtrack like a kid
with ADD let loose with an XM radio. There's at least
40 songs in this film, some snippets only lasting
a few seconds. And often his choices in these areas
are just dumb and typical. When the film begins with
a sex scene set to T-Rex's "20th Century Boy," you
know you're in for a pretentious film school ride.
That song, which was once so awesome, is now, like,
SO September 10th.
But regardless of Cox's sophomoric
displays, soon the storytelling of "Wonderland" takes
center stage and the film begins to sprout wings.
Val Kilmer's portrayal of "Porn King" John "Johnny
Wad" Holmes in decline is rapturous. He may seem troubled
and an obvious user and yet he comes across as charismatic
and full of life, nothing like a loser junkie at all.
Kilmer is perfectly at walking this delicate tightrope
of his character. He is also far more attractive than
Holmes, so he easily charms the females and males
in the film as easily as he does the audience but
his actions are often so awful, we wonder how it is
we like him so. His Holmes comes across as vibrant,
naive, intelligent and cool as his Jim Morrisson.
In fact, they seem remarkably like the same character.
Kilmer is backed quite effectively
by a plethora of talent. Josh Lucas and Kate Boswell
are quite wonderful in their roles. They both have
numerous intense scenes with Kilmer that keep the
film strong and engrossing. Tim Blake Nelson is awesome
even if he is given absolutely nothing to do. And
Dylan McDermott provides a multi-dimensional character
with perfection. It's a breakout performance for him.
The story is told in an interesting
and complex way, one in which we get to see several
facets of the story from the viewpoint of different
people. Cox does not coddle his audience nor does
he spoon-feed them as the plot of the film unfolds
and, in effect, we eventually get a story told from
several sides, one which we must make our minds up
about ourselves, even if Cox does lead us slightly
down the path of his thoughts in the end. This is
all done pretty nicely as Cox takes a storytelling
device that has been used many times but keeps it
fresh and thought-provoking.
So, despite its desperate film school
coolness and quirky quick-cut slapdashery, despite
a horrible performance by Lisa Kudrow and despite
a bloody climax that is unwatchable, "Wonderland"
remains an engrossing and interesting story based
on a true life incident. It also acts as a testimony
to Kilmer's insane charisma, something he hasn't displayed
adequately since he played that other king of the
cocks, Jim Morrisson, in the early 90's.
Notes:
Viewed in Austin in October 2003
at the first public screening at the Dobie.
