Review of Next Stop Wonderland (1998) by Hunter D — 14 Jun 2010

Before Brad Anderson was making awesome horror-thrillers like THE MACHINIST and TRANSSIBERIAN, he apparently made a mediocre rom-com called NEXT STOP WONDERLAND. The story is a bit like SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, Hope Davis plays Erin, a Harvard drop-out turned night nurse whose idealistic lefty activist boyfriend (Philip Seymour Hoffman) leaves her in favor of the latest cause-du-jour. She feels content on her own, but her cougar mother is determined to set her up, taking it upon herself to place an ad in the personals section of the paper, and soon Erin finds herself going on a gauntlet of dates with only the kind of guys who would answer a want ad for a relationship in the Boston Herald. Meanwhile Alan (Alan Gelfant), a plumber with ambitions to be a marine biologists, struggles with his father's mounting debt, mobsters wanting favors, and a girl he tutors who wants to be more than friends. Alan and Erin's paths cross, but they never seem to meet, but given that this is a movie, we know they will, and they'll live happily ever after.

There are things to like about NEXT STOP WONDERLAND, Hope Davis is very good in the lead role, and she finds herself in some funny situations that are definitely forced, but fun to watch unfold, even though we know exactly how they'll end up. She's an interesting character to have in a romantic comedy since she doesn't pine for affection with one hand outstretched the way female characters often do in this genre, she has a somehow cynically playful nature to the way she approaches men. Alan's story, however, is not interesting, and neither is the concept of him and Erin being soul mates that fate is scheming to keep apart, only to have meet up at just the right time in the end. The movie knows that these characters are perfect for each other, but it never really shows us why, apart from the fact that Alan is looking for a way out of where he is in life, and Erin is looking for a way into something, but that hardly has the makings of a couple destined for true love. The journey there has its moments, but is mostly a meandering mess. It seems like the movie wants to have a dizzy Wong Kar-Wai vibe at times, but it never really captures the feeling of the forces surrounding the mysteries of the nature of romance the way a director like Kar-Wai does. The results just taste bland. I visited WONDERLAND out of curiosity, mainly because Brad Anderson is an impressive storyteller and I wanted to see what he did pre-SESSION 9, and either he has improved greatly as a filmmaker, or this genre isn't where his strengths lie.