Wonderland (1999)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Michael Winterbottom

Writer:

Laurence Coriat (writer)

Release Date:

21 August 1999 (Taiwan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Everybody's looking for something.

Plot:

There's little wonder in the working-class lives of Bill, Eileen, and their three grown daughters. They're lonely Londoners...

Plot Keywords:

Working Class | Guy Fawkes Day | Marital Relations | Contact Ad | Family Relationships

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Shirley Henderson	...	Debbie
Gina McKee	...	Nadia
Molly Parker	...	Molly
Ian Hart	...	Dan
John Simm	...	Eddie
Stuart Townsend	...	Tim
Kika Markham	...	Eileen
Jack Shepherd	...	Bill
Enzo Cilenti	...	Darren
Sarah-Jane Potts	...	Melanie
David Fahm	...	Franklyn
Ellen Thomas	...	Donna
Peter Marfleet	...	Jack
Nathan Constance	...	Alex
Anton Saunders	...	Danny

Also Known As:

Snarl Up (UK) (working title)
Untitled Love Story (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some strong sexuality, and for language.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Iceland:L | South Korea:18 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | New Zealand:M | Spain:13 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Movie Connections:

References Elizabeth (1998)

Soundtrack:

Happy Together

the best damn tear-jerker ever made!

This film hit home and touched me so deeply on a personal level, its not even funny. And I believe it should have a fairly wide appeal, as well. The main limiting factor is that it may only be fully appreciated by Britons and anglophiles. There are so many specifics of daily working class London life, and the accents are slightly thick, that non-Britons may not be able to connect.

I read a review of this film in the Village Voice (it was very positive, and I rented the title on the strength of the recommendation) and one of the things it said was that this film didn't avert its eyes from the ugly things in life. And that is exactly what give this film is weight and poignancy.

This film even manages to capture one of the most difficult (and therefore least often seen, in films) aspects of modern working class life: the mind numbing crassness, tedium and insignificance. And at the same time, it manages to give dignity to these people's lives and gives them hope for finding threads of meaning in the garbage heap of modern life. The thought that came most forcefully to me at the end of this film was: how many years of suffering do the working class have to endure before their lives are portrayed with dignity and meaning?

One thing about this film that is consistently downbeat, and that the film maker had the good sense not to try and sugar coat, is the awful over crowding in modern Britain. This aspect is truly horrific, suffocating and overwhelming. And maybe this is the most topsy-turvy aspect of this film, that modern Britons are expected to endure this with good grace, but I don't know, I can't say.

The music is lovely as well, very well chosen, very understated. And its all in a minor key, of course.

Its films like this that re-affirm my faith in film as an artistic medium. But, although this film gives a sweet dignity to the recent past, it doesn't seem to hold out any real hope for the future. And it is this sidestepping of facile hopefulness where this movie really hits the deepest. This film says, in my opinion, that any progress towards a livable future is going to take everything we have to struggle to achieve.