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The Scrubbing Bubble looks at WONDER BOYS
Well, with Curtis Hanson directing, and the cast this baby has... I just have to turn my eyes towards it and pay attention. I mean.... What a cool cast! Well, here's the Scrubbing Bubble with a peekaboo at it...
I'm
writing because I have the screenplay for the film "Wonder Boys" and I loved
it so much and have so much to say about it that I've written a review for
it. I'm sending it to you because your sight is the best place to have it
read to get others excited about this upcoming film starring Michael Douglas,
Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, and Frances McDormand.
First off, I've been reading about the productions problems that have been
plaguing this film as of late and I thought some information about what the
film's about and what people have to look forward to might be interesting too.
I'll start off by saying that when Oscar time comes around, I believe "Wonder
Boys" will be a heavy contender, especially in the acting categories.
Michael Douglas hasn't had a role this juicy since "Wall Street". In the
film, he plays Grady Tripp, a creative writing teacher at a Pittsburgh
college, who over the course of one weekend, watches as his life falls to
pieces.
The author of the novel, Michael Chabon, owes a debt to Hunter S. Thompson's
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". As we all know, Fear and Loathing concerns
a writer and his lawyer, who over the course of a few days, consume a
suitcase full of drugs on the road to self realization. They also, in the
film, pick up a hitchiking kid, played by Tobey Maguire. In "Wonder Boys",
we've got a writer and his editor (Downey Jr.), who consume a suitcase full
of drugs on the road to self realization along with a kid named James Leer,
who in the film is being played by Tobey Maguire. I just thought it was
interesting that no one had mentioned that yet.
The similarities between the two pieces ends there. Steven Kloves' December
'97 draft of "Wonder Boys" is funny, moving, and sad. Without blowing the
story and giving away spoilers we'll just say that the title refers not only
to Grady Tripp's magnum opus of an unfinished novel, but also to Tripp
himself, along with Crabtree (Downey Jr.) and James Leer. This isn't the
kind of movie you can pitch to a Hollywood studio in fifteen words or less.
"Wonder Boys" is a story driven by its characters, not by it's plot.
It's plot is really just a series of vignettes. Some are absolutely
hilarious (Grady's trunk filling up with dead animals and a tuba over the
course of the film), and others are just plain strange (James Leers' theft of
a coat Marilyn Monroe wore on her wedding day with Joe Dimaggio). The real
pleasure is the relationships between the characters. Downey's Crabtree is a
degenerate homosexual who moves from a fling with a transvestite to becoming
completely infatuated with James Leer. Crabtree provides a lot of comic
relief. Also interesting is the sexual tension between Grady and Hannah
Green, a creative writing student who rents a room from him. She's being
played by the always wonderful Katie Holmes. Although the role is small
there's a lot of room here for her to create a really wonderful character.
Hannah is an amazingly assured young woman and in the hands of an actress as
good as Holmes, this secondary role might really resonate.
So that's my feeling. I don't want to give away much, because one of the
script's pleasures is how each escapade builds to the next one. The end is
absolutely perfect and moving. Just when you think Grady is at the lowest
point he can go he gets his shot at redemption.
Great script. With Curtis Hanson directing and the stellar cast attatched,
"Wonder Boys" is sure to be a winner.
The Scrubbing Bubble
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+ Expand All
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Good review! Your enthusiasm is really infectious, mr bubble.
Somehow I -
I read Chabon's novel and found it contrived (the transvestite, the "cutesy" accumulation of dead pets and other bizarre things in the trunk of Grady's car. He's going through life with "baggage," get it?) and self-pitying (a stalled novelist, as Chabon was at the time, writing a novel about a stalled novelist. Cripes!) but hey, those may be precisely the elements that put the story over on the screen. Also, in the book, Crabtree is about the same age as Grady, not decades younger as Downy, Jr. is to Douglas. Not that Downy isn't usually a fine performer...We shall see what the alchemy of moviemaking brings to fruit.....
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I don't know yet on how to judge Wonder Boys -- sounds too good to be true!!!! Am I just being wary or does The Scrubbing Bubble sounds like he/she's on someone's payroll.
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I really enjoyed this book, though it wasn't as good as Michael Chabon's first novel, "Mysteries of Pittsburgh". I would have rather they adapted that one into a movie instead, but I imagine "Wonder Boys" translates better from the page to the big screen. My only problem is that I don't see Michael Douglas as being at all right for the role of Grady Tripp, though I guess he could surprise me.
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May 21, 1999 7:44:27 PM CDT
I hope Curtis Hanson does more LA Confidentials than Hand that R
by paragonian
Notice how LA Confidential was loved while Hand that Rocks the Cradle and River Wild were hated. Maybe we're smarter than Curtis gives us credit for.Except for the Confidential ending where the plots spoon fed and everyone lives happily ever after, it ruined a perfect movie just like Psycho's ending did. SHould've trusted us and you could've made a lot more money with it. It's still a top five of the nineties though. Hopefully he doesn't fuck this one up too.
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"It is plot is really just a series of vignettes." Isn't that an oxymoron? Is there a plot or is it just a series of vignettes? Oscars in the acting categories? I thought you just read the script. It's a long way from there to an Oscar for acting.
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