There's nothing about Michael Chabon's popular novel "Wonder Boys" that screams "movie material." Its lead character is an English professor, not a cop or a scientist. In place of a plot, Chabon simply lays out the events from one bizarre weekend, including an accidental murder (of a dog), a robbery (of a jacket that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe), the breakdown of two marriages and lots of drug-taking.
On top of that, most of the characters are either writers, editors or college administrators, not exactly the kinds of professions that make for exciting viewing.
Smartly, when director Curtis Hanson and screenwriter Steve Kloves ("The Fabulous Baker Boys") were putting together the film of "Wonder Boys" they didn't try to impose a storyline or goose the action quotient. Instead, they've simply taken most of the book's essence and transferred it lovingly to the screen. Kloves' adaptation is so faithful, in fact, that even the Alfred Stieglitz portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe hanging over student Hannah Green's bed -- a throwaway descriptive detail in Chabon's novel -- turns up in the movie.
What also surfaces is one of Michael Douglas' strongest performances of the past decade. As an actor, Douglas has always been strongest when playing disturbed (and often disturbing) men, as he did in "The War of the Roses," "Falling Down" and, unforgettably, in his Oscar-winning turn in "Wall Street." And Grady Tripp, the focal point of "Wonder Boys," has plenty to disturb him. On the personal front, his wife has left him and his 20-year-old boarder Hannah (Katie Holmes) seems anxious to take her place. Meanwhile, Sara (Frances McDormand), the chancellor at the Pittsburgh college where Grady teaches, has just told Grady she's pregnant with his child. Plus, there's the matter of James Leer (Tobey Maguire), the spooky, gifted young writer who has seemingly attached himself to Grady.
Professionally, Grady is in a funk because it's been seven years since his last novel and he can't come up with an ending to his sprawling new manuscript, which now stands at 2611 typewritten, single-spaced pages. That worry is compounded by his old friend and editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.), who's told Grady his job at the publishing house is hanging by a thread and could disappear if the new book is not a major success.
All these major and minor crises collide in the course of 72 hours and the quiet chaos they bring is beautifully orchestrated by Kloves' script and Hanson's smooth, easygoing direction. There's flintiness as well as warmth in McDormand's Sara, while Holmes brings her usual earthy radiance to Hannah. In Maguire's tricky eyes you can see the wheels of James' slightly warped mind grinding away. Only Downey seems slightly flat.
"Wonder Boys" can best be described as a lighthearted dark comedy which never pushes too hard in either direction. Like many a lost weekend, it's frequently puzzling while it's going on but surprisingly pleasant to look back on. James Sanford
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