Wonderful World

One of the things that has always attracted me to independent cinema is the freedom this venue afford the auteur to explore stories that would never gain acceptance with a mainstream studio. Sure, it’s always a welcomed sight to see a film garner box office receipts that exceed the budget but for the true Indy film maker the art is what is truly important. This allows the film make to create the little, humanistic movies that reach the audience on an emotional level frequently forgotten with the big explosive blockbusters. Many of these little gems remind me of my undergraduate days when my wife and I would go see off Broadway experimental theater down in Greenwich Village. We would never know what to expect; sometimes we would love the production, other times we hated it. The important thing is the play invoked a genuine emotional response. This is what keeps me coming back to Indy movies; the honest attempt to create something different. One of the latest examples of this I have come across is ‘Wonderful Life’ by Joshua Goldin. It is a flawed presentation of a seriously damaged human being. In this case the technical missteps only made the movie more endearing to me. It is simply not possible to make a slick, perfected crafted film about a man with the degree of resentment and anger present in the protagonist of this story. Life is far from perfect so any artistic work trying to honestly present certain aspects of life need to reflect those imperfections that make us human. This is well present in ‘Wonderful World’; a bitter sweet look at life and how it affects one disillusioned man. While some may try to extrapolate the themes here into some grand explanation of the general state of humanity the movie comes across with humble aspirations; looking at the changing world through the vantage point of someone else’s eyes. The film is distributed by one of my favorite sources of independent films like this; Magnolia Pictures. They have always been the place where quality blends with the offbeat and now they have begun to release films on Blu-ray.

The list of screenplays for Joshua Goldin may deem light but he has been working on his trade foe well over a decade. In 1990 he scripted the star studded, cult classic Sci-Fi thriller ‘Darkman’ followed in 19925 by a comedy also starring Matthew Broderick, ‘Out on a Limb’. This is his first time out as a director and from the looks of things he has some interesting films to go in his career. A notable difference between this film and the freshman opus of so many other writer-directors is the sense of maturity that pervades the script and is well reinforced in the directorial style. Goldin appears sufficiently assured of his ability as a story teller so that there is no need to rush to make his point. This is not to say the film drags, it doesn’t; it is just reassuring to watch a story unfold aced well enough to let the audience understand the characters. Ben Singer (Matthew Broderick) is neither happy nor likable. He drifts through his days working as a proof reader and spends his evenings smoking pot and playing chess with his Senegalese roommate Ibou (Michael K. Williams). Ben is also a weekend father to his precocious 11 year old daughter Sandra (Jodelle Ferland) but is not able to muster too much excitement for their time together. Many years ago he was a folk singer with a popular children’s album but now his musical expression is restricted to playing guitar in the back room of a local musical instrument store. The store’s owner economically sums up the source of Ben’s misanthropic nature, ‘it’s sad when you are so good at something no one cares about any more. A man that was once the third most popular singer for children now has made it impossible for his own daughter to be near him.

One day his roommate goes into a diabetic coma. Ben tries to rush him to the hospital but his car is being towed due to an ongoing fight over a parking space with his neighbor. Things begin to change when Ibou’s sister Khadi (Sanaa Lathan) comes to America. She is a person who marvels at things we take for granted and still believes there is magic in the world. Ben and Khadi initially hit it off eventually sharing his bed. She even helps his daughter out of her shell and reconnects with her father. There are not a lot of sudden moments of insight or revelation, just the slow infusion of Ben’s vantage point as he solely reawakens to the possibilities that life can hold. Broderick has been entertaining audiences in films and on the stage for most of his life. Most think of him as a comic actor but this film demonstrates the man certainly has range. There is a pathos presented here that is hypnotic. Playing opposite him as Ibou is Williams gives a strong yet understated performance. Fans of the HBO crime drama ‘The Wire’ will recognize him as one of the deadliest, psychopathic criminals on that series. Once again the great thing about a film like this is the opportunity it provides to the actors to step out of the usual roles they get and try out a completely new persona. There is a little dream appurtenance of the proverbial ‘Man’ portrayed by one of his generation’s best character actors; Philip Baker Hall. This film is a sleeper that must be seen by any film buff who enjoys a little trip outside the box.

Posted 03/19/2010