Watched: Wonder Boys
As far as I could tell, this film was about learning to give a shit and stop going through the motions, and that’s a strange subject for a film to have, especially with as muted an ending as this one. In fact, it’s the closing moments of this film that left me feeling a little cheated. It’s all a little too tidy. The protagonist is less of a person, here, and more of a device through which to watch the development of other people. Michael Douglas is entirely competent, but narratively dull.
Not that the film itself is dull. The entire film is wonderfully witty, with Robert Downey Jr and Tobey Maguire getting the lion’s share of the fun lines. It was their characters and the relationship between the two that stood out the most to me. Maguire seemingly identifies with the impulse to turn off emotionally, and manages to solve the problem of how to care responsibly before Douglas works it out.
I think Katie Holmes’s character threw me out of the emotional beats a little, too - she’s really poorly-defined, a mashed-together collection of stereotypes about hot students and redemptive angels. Aside from caring about books enough to read most of a 2,000-page manuscript, her personality appears to be an afterthought. The same can’t be said for Frances McDormand’s university chancellor, who is fascinating and stoic, but her entire character is undermined by the end with no real emotional justification - she’s robbed of agency so that Michael Douglas can have a happy ending.
Or maybe that’s harsh. Characteristically, for a film about not really giving a shit, motivations are hard to work out in this piece. Everyone appears to be making it up as they go along, which is a great mood to have (see: The Big Lebowski) until you try and reach a resolution (see: not The Big Lebowski, which didn’t, really). Infusing a film like this with heart is a hard thing to do, and the story is too sprawling and with too many focuses to really earn any of its punches by the end, with the exception of Maguire’s achievements.
I don’t know. This was odd. I know a lot of people love this film, and it certainly has something to say about writers and writing, but I was left feeling like it could have been something considerably better.