Next Stop Wonderland (1998)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Brad Anderson

Writers:

Brad Anderson (writer)
Lyn Vaus (writer)

Release Date:

21 August 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Being alone is fine. Being alone together is perfect.

Plot:

An unlucky in love nurse finds her life taking a detour when her mother places a personals ad in the paper, while on the other side of Boston, a plumber is trying to change careers.

Plot Keywords:

Aquarium | Boston Massachusetts | Personals Column | Mother Daughter Relationship | Security Guard

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Hope Davis	...	Erin Castleton
Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Sean
Callie Thorne	...	Cricket
Ken Cheeseman	...	Rick
Pamela Hart	...	Berit
Diane Beckett	...	Seana
Jeremy Geidt	...	Bookseller
Alan Gelfant	...	Alan Monteiro
Dave Gilloran	...	Aquarium Volunteer
Luz Alexandra Ramos	...	Thalia (as Luz Alexandra)
Emma Shaw	...	Bailey
Kemp Harris	...	Ben
Neil Gustafson	...	Yuri Spinov
Holland Taylor	...	Piper Castleton
E. Katherine Kerr	...	Candice (as Katherine Kerr)

Also Known As:

Last Train to Wonderland (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | South Africa:A | Australia:M | France:U | Hong Kong:IIA | Spain:T | USA:R | Italy:VM14 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Robbins Entertainment

Trivia:

One of the last scenes in the film, with Andre on the airplane, was filmed several months after the initial completion of the film. The scene was added because test audiences reacted badly to Erin standing-up Andre at the end of the film. The intention of the scene was to show that Andre was not a nice guy (as he had been throughout the film) and remove any sympathy viewers had for him. The fact that this scene was filmed so much later also explains why Andre's hair is significantly different in that scene than in the rest of the film.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The MBTA (subway) map at the beginning of the film is wrong. It also doesn't correspond to the subway route used in the movie. The conductor says the next stop inbound is Aquarium from Airport. The map says the next stop should be Maverick (which it is, in real life).

Quotes:

Erin Castleton: But wouldn't you say that consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds?
Alan: Well, actually, its "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." That's Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Shimmering

Unlike most romantic comedies that get distributed, Next Stop Wonderland is neither star-peopled nor entirely plot-driven. Although the film was marketed as another Nora Ephron knockoff, it is very different from the slick, syrupy Meg Ryan vehicles viewers were led to believe it would resemble. Brad Anderson's beautiful, shimmering treatment of light, and his pleasingly idiosyncratic manner of filming the Boston urban landscape (and the lovely Hope Davis), well serve the sympathetic honesty with which he treats the search for love in the modern American city. A magnificent film.