A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Wonder Boys

Date Viewed:3/19/00

Details:

Michael Douglas

Tobey Maquire

Frances McDormand

Robert Downey Jr.

Rip Torn

Director: Curtis Hanson

Score: +

The Review: A character study of several rather odd and fascinating people. Douglas is a popular, albeit frequently stoned, college professor whose wife has just left him. He has written one very famous best seller, and is now deeply rutted by the opposite of writer's block, a form of uncontrolled logorrhea. McDormand is his dean's wife with whom he is having an affair. Downey is his impatient editor who has decided to pay a visit and snoop after the manuscript. Maquire is one of his students, a moody, introverted, and depressed soul who happens to be a very talented writer, notwithstanding certain personality quirks, such as a very active imagination. Torn is a pretentious S.O.B., popular author and bon vivant -- an intellectual competitor to Douglas.

The action of this film centers around a single weekend during which the college sponsors a writing conference, assembling students, authors, editors and more. It turns into an odyssey of sorts for several of them. It is easy to become involved with these characters, drawn into their circle, and to care about them..., even when some very strange events start rolling.

Wry, amusing, recommended.

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