Next Stop Wonderland (1998)
Cast: Hope Davis, Alan Gelfant, Holland Taylor, Robert Klein, Cara Buono. Director: Brad Anderson Writer: Brad Anderson and Lyn Vaus
Review by Scott Hunt
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Rating: Good Shot (3 out of 4 stars)
Are we victims of fate in life or can we create our own destiny? Director/writer Brad Anderson seems to be saying yes to both questions in his witty film "Next Stop Wonderland". The two main characters, Alan and Erin, spend the entire movie in each other's orbit, catching glimpses of one another, yet not quite connecting until the inevitable conclusion. Is it fate that keeps them near each other and ultimately puts them together? Does this predestination carry over to all aspects of life?
As the film starts, Erin Castleton (Hope Davis), a melancholy 29- year old late shift nurse, is ending her live-in relationship with her boyfriend (Hoffman). Rather, he is ending it with her. Arriving home from work, Erin finds her boyfriend parked in front of their apartment, car packed with his belongings. In a fumbling, amusing and self deluding ramble, he instructs Erin to watch a videotape he's made detailing why their relationship is doomed to fail and why he's leaving. It's obvious he lacks the courage to confront her directly as he rails on about accomplishing something with his life and taking a stand, all the while backpedaling his way out of their relationship. He then flees the scene with the grace of an inept thief.
Erin's mother (Holland Taylor, in a surprisingly effective, small role), fearing that her daughter will be without a man in her life,takes out a personal ad for Erin. To Erin's embarrassed horror, the ad describes her as a "frisky, cultured, carefree professional with a zest for life". Eventually, Erin responds to the tidal wave of responses, which makes for some of the most humorous, telling moments of the movie as she meets prospective suitors and "poseurs".
Alan, a plumber and aspiring marine biologist, first spots Erin as he's cleaning the inside glass of a fish tank at the Boston aquarium. Wearing a wet suit and goggles, he follows Erin from window to window, separated by the glass as Erin, oblivious to his gaze, enjoys the fish. Later, we see him on a train as she sits on a platform outside, mere feet away. The movie spends it's entirety having their paths circle each other without crossing.
There are several subplots involving Alan. One concerns his attempts to get on the job track at the Boston Aquarium, thereby escaping his apparent fate to carry on the family plumbing business. Another subplot involves his father's desperate attempts to force fate's hand by gambling away his life at the dog track. A distracting focus is put on Alan's debt to a loan shark and the manner in which he pays it off. The movie tries too hard to make Alan a likable guy. Thankfully, his dream- guy persona is counterbalanced by Erin's distant, yet fundamentally hopeful, personality.
The film moves along at an unhurried pace, albeit too much so in the latter third, as we wait for the two to meet. Co-writers Anderson and Lyn Vaus throw a couple of possible red herrings into the mix as the two find other possible relationships. The films shifts into a much slower gear as we wait for these romances to blow over.
When Alan and Erin eventually do meet, we see that perhaps they both were destined for each other as they share a lingering, almost subliminally knowing, gaze. It's a sweet, measured moment. The disappointment comes in the fact that we've come to know the pair, yet we don't get to view their impending romance.
The film's inherent belief in the subtle persistence of fate and the wonder it can bring to one's life makes "Next Stop Wonderland" a quiet pleasure in a cinematic landscape littered with explosions, shallow characters and overdone special effects.
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