Review of Wonderland (2003) by R.c. K — 15 Feb 2008

The Wonderland Murders--I might have heard the phrase before, but that's the most I heard, I can't say I knew much of or about them otherwise until I saw this film. Obviously, I take with a grain of salt the idea that after viewing it I know much factual--though it has been suggested that it is fairly accurate--but certainly when, where, who and the essence of how was made clear, even if not a guaranteed accurate why.

Val Kilmer takes on the third real-life role I can think of off the top of my head, previous roles being Elvis (!...ok, his ghost) in True Romance and most famously Jim Morrison in The Doors, this time playing famed porn star John Holmes (he of the exaggerated nether regions, to the point that his name is now used almost like an adjective to describe anyone so endowed) after his "adult film" career in the early 80s, struggling to stay afloat through massive drug addiction (primarily cocaine, it appears) with his sometime girlfriend Dawn Schiller (Kate Bosworth). The only dealer left in town who will take enough pity on him to keep him in said drugs is Ron Launius (Josh Lucas) and his gang, which keeps a "headquarters" in the Wonderland Ave. home of Billy Deverell (Tim Blake Nelson, who I last saw as the rather befuddled and somewhat disturbing best friend in The Good Girl, if memory serves). As the movie opens, Dawn has escaped John's manipulations when she is picked up by the do-gooder Sally Hansen (Carrie Fisher), but John finds her and takes her away, and in a drugged haze we witness several events from a distance which are later to play into the murders the movie is centered around. We only see John coming and going most of the time, not knowing for certain where he had gone most times. When the murders are announced after his final return, the news report is used to bring us instead to David Lind (an unusually biker-y Dylan McDermott, complete with beard, sideburns, and nearly shoulder-length hair) who comes to the crime scene, and then begins telling his story to Detectives Nico (Ted Levine) and Cruz (Franky G). He heavily incriminates Holmes as the culprit, reciting his involvement with the robbery that likely inspired the murders as retaliation--that of Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian--who I was pleased to see again after his excellent performance in Talk Radio) who was a notorious drug dealer in 80s Los Angeles.

We find ourselves viewing yet another incarnation of Rashomon--when Holmes is picked up, he, too, gives his report of the events, incriminating Lind instead as the primary cuplrit, though with the same essential events as the fault, being the original robbery and retaliation. Throughout we see glimpses of others' views, Dawn remembering John pimping her out to Nash in a rather harrowing sequence of memories, John's estranged wife Sharon (Lisa Kudrow--showing chops I was pleased to find she had, as I have little love for Friends, and it's nice to see that Jennifer Aniston was not the only hidden female talent there) recalls an event that the real-life Sharon revealed after Holmes' death--he visited her the night of the murders covered in blood.

The film is assembled in a very modern style--rapid cutting, shaky cameras and camera tricks like a rolling set of frames within a single frame of film, as if we are seeing two or three films run simultaneously. It's a little tired these days, but is well done enough that it simply holds none of the magic it used to, but is not intrusive. But these and the multiple viewpoints of the film do not seem to be in operation to convince us of their radical originality--which is thankful, because they aren't--but rather to convey the drug-addled sense of the film. Kilmer is interestingly distant as Holmes, never seeming close to the audience, almost mysterious and enigmatic as he sort of wanders into scenes and causes mayhem then wanders out. In a strange way, he almost comes off as blameless--though more accurately as a drugged-out dope who is really more pathetic than anything else, barely able to recognize the real world, let alone properly interact with it. Bosworth perfectly manages to capture the look of the girl who doesn't know what's best for her and continues to stay with the man who--however unconsciously or guiltily--abuses and uses her.

Of note, without a doubt, though, is the music. There's a fantastic set of songs hiding throughout here, with great cuts from the likes of Robert Palmer (showing his funkier side, as seen most often when he collaborated, as here, with Lowell George of Little Feat), Bad Company, The Cars, Roxy Music, Free, Funkadelic, Ted Nugent, the Stooges (from my favourite album, no less!), Patti Smith, Leon Russell (criminally underused and lesser known, despite The Wonder Years famous use of his arrangment of "With a Little Help from My Friends"--associated more with Joe Cocker, who simply put his, admittedly good, pipes to use on it), and of course Dobie Gray's classic recording of "Drift Away." But behind that, we have a score to reckon with from Cliff Martinez, who also scored Traffic and Solaris for Steven Soderbergh and, a personal favourite, Joe Carnahan's Narc. The man knows how to use ambient synthesizer sound to amazing effect, conveying moods with simplistic and minimalistic sound reminiscent--in my eclectic experience--of the Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II. Simple sounds repeated and modulated behind action are not intrusive, yet remain infectious. When John places Dawn into a bathtub to clean her after her "experience" with Nash, Martinez' music is very basic but unbelievably ominous, a similar effect achieved during the depiction of the murders that appears near the end of the film, a sequence that manages to be far darker and more disturbing than anything else in the film without completely separating the sequences tone from the rest. Martinez music here is absolutely unsettling, as we see barely visible images of the murders being carried out.

I think I read mixed reviews of this film originally, but I don't think, in retrospect, they were exactly founded. It was a very solid film, with which I have very few complaints.