NEXT STOP, WONDERLAND
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Director: Brad Anderson Writer: Brad Anderson & Lyn Vaus Cast: Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Victor Argo, H. Jon Benjamin, CAra Buono, Larry Gilliard Jr., Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Lewis, Roger Rees
After you see a romantic comedy like "How Stella Got Her Groove Back"--an overlong, predictable, commercialized take on the game of romance--you'll have your faith restored with Brad Anderson's indie gem, "Next Stop, Wonderland." Despite its clunky title, this movie has an alternately dreamy, melancholy, happy and comic ambiance boasting fresh writing, sensitive direction, and a lead performance by Hope Davis which reflects the Brazilian term saudade--an oxymoronic expression meaning sadness and happiness at the same time. Ms. Davis is known chiefly to patrons of indie films which show up at the Sundance Festival, having garnered enthusiastic responses in movies like "Daytrippers" and "The Myth of Fingerprints," and is known to Broadway aficionados for a starring role in Chekhov's "Ivanov."
Erin Castleton (Hope Davis) is one of the most interesting young women we've come across in recent months because she is anything but a one-sided character. In fact she is a hodgepodge of opposites. Though she has no problem being alone, she feels lonely in crowds, and while she would like to have a boy friend, she is not the type actively to seek one. Though she is melancholy, displaying a broad smile only once in the entire narrative, she claims to be basically happy. She has had the good--and bad--luck to have adored her recently departed father and will not settle for a young man who does not embrace her dad's poetic qualities. The fun begins when her mother secretly places a personals ad in the local Boston paper describing Erin as "vivacious and carefree," itself a bold prevarication because this terminology describes not the daughter but her mother, Piper Castleton (Holland Taylor), a smart, bourgeois, fast-talking modeling agent whose temperament is quite the converse of her daughter's.
Brad Anderson, who directs and co-wrote the feature following his less accessible "The Darien Gap, sets up a series of comical situations of the sort that the dating game naturally evokes, and in the funniest scene lays out a collage of suitors for Erin's affections who are virtually all wimps, jerks, and flat-out liars. A threesome of yuppies call the young woman and take bets among themselves for who will be the first to French-kiss her. They plan, in turn, to make themselves inconspicuous in the bar which she has chosen to meet her candidates. Anderson sweeps through a quick take on the fibbers who don't make it past the telephone conversation including one who, seated in the john, claims to operate his own business and, as he reaches for the toilet paper, asks her to hold on because "a fax is coming through." "I'm a temp but that's not a permanent thing," admits a flustered suitor, while yet another, taken aback that she's anything but carefree and vivacious, learns that her mother put in the ad and inquires, "What's your mother's number?"
The more she tries, the more she fails to meet Mr. Right. In one scene she discusses with her fellow nurses whether love comes along by the Large Hand of Fate or whether it is a random occurrence. Director Anderson deliberately does not take sides but instead lays out a parallel story of an earnest 35-year-old man, Alan (Alan Gelfant) who is a plumber but is going to college to become a marine biologist. Deep in debt and pressured by a loan shark to steal a valuable fish from the city's aquarium, Alan gives no thought to finding a mate, but after repeatedly coming close to meeting Erin is literally thrown into her arms.
Erin is surely not an ideal woman. She does not possess classic beauty, her expression is deadpan throughout, and is capable of coming up with some on-the-money put-downs of aggressive men. She captures our interest and concern simply because she cannot be pigeonholed like the bimbo, Julie (Cara Buono), a gum-chewer who repeatedly throws herself on the bemused Alan.
Alan Gelfant is a model college student, the sort who has taken many years off to work at a well-paying job but chooses in mid-life to quit, go to school, and pursue a career he loves. The only man who comes close to his quality is Andre De Silva (Jose Zuniga), an ultra-romantic Brazilian who is returning home to Sao Paolo and, on a whim, invites Erin to join him. She is entranced by the poetry of his words, which reflect the Bossa Nova sountrack permeating this delightful film.
Not Rated. Running time: 111 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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