WONDER BOYS: MOD Blu-ray (Paramount/Mutual Film Co., 2000) Paramount Home Video

Based on the brilliant novel by Michael Chabon, director, Curtis Hanson’s sadly underrated, Wonder Boys (2000) is a masterpiece in its own right. Shot in sequence, in and around Pittsburgh, with many scenes taking place at Carnegie Mellon University, the film is, perhaps, Hanson’s magnum opus despite its off-key public reception; its screenplay by Steve Kloves, a veritable showcase for poignant, true-to-life scenarios put over by an impeccable cast. Given Hanson’s clout in Hollywood, following the success of his Oscar-nominated L.A. Confidential (1997), one would naturally assume Hanson would have found a studio eager to jump at the opportunity to produce Wonder Boys. Alas, no – the picture, eventually distributed by Paramount, was actually internationally produced with funds from the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan. Even more perplexing was the movie’s colossal belly-flop at the box office, barely earning $34 million on its $55 million outlay. Flush with success after L.A. Confidential, Hanson began working on an unrelated screenplay while entertaining outside offers. Actress, Elizabeth McGovern advised Hanson to look up Kloves who had already secured Michael Douglas to work on Wonder Boys. According to Hanson, he immediately fell in love with the story’s quirky characters, especially Grady Tripp, the frustrated university professor and novelist, desperately in search of his future. Kloves, highly regarded for writing and directing The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), had taken a 7-year hiatus from the picture-making biz shortly thereafter, but was compelled to adapt Chabon's novel as he identified with the character of Grady Tripp – an affinity shared by Hanson, upon reading the novel. Rather graciously, Kloves, who had aspired to direct this movie as well, instead deferred the honors to Hanson.

Approaching Paramount, Hanson quickly discovered the studio shared none of his interests on the property. Indeed, the executive brain trust viewed Wonder Boys as a run-of-the-mill, character-driven comedy/drama. But Hanson had an ace in the hole – super star, Michael Douglas, who now approached the big shots, offering to make the picture for a fraction of his usual salary. Recognizing that the movie’s greatest hurdle would be how to draw emotional clarity from a main character who is basically sleep-walking his way through the moments in his life, perhaps even unaware of his own motivations, into a story that would crystalize with an audience and hold their interest, Hanson also had his reservations about hiring Robert Downey Jr. for the part of the unscrupulous publisher, Terry Crabtree – seemingly, tailor-made for the irascible star. Alas, by 1999, Downey was still very much struggling with his own addiction to alcohol and pills. Undaunted, Downey flew to Pittsburgh and convinced Hanson he could do the part over polite dinner conversation - and proved it, by remaining a total professional - clean and sober - for the entire 4 ½ month shoot.

To manage their budget, Paramount suggested taking advantage of Toronto, Canada’s tax incentives, or, at least consider relocating the story to New York City – no stranger to permits for film and television crews. Hanson, however, was adamant the movie be shot in Pittsburgh. Hanson won this fight, and the necessary permissions were secured to take advantage of Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham College, and Shady Side Academy with other locations made available in Beaver, Rochester, and Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania. The situation, alas, was further exacerbated by damp working conditions, too mild for actual snow, which necessitated bringing in snow machines to simulate the real thing. Meanwhile, Dante Spinotti, a collaborator on L.A. Confidential, took 6-weeks to shoot process plates that could be inserted as backgrounds later during the various ‘driving’ sequences. As these contained a lot of exposition, due to Spinotti’s foresight, Hanson had greater control over the way these scenes were shot, keeping his camera extremely close to the actors and in deep focus.

Wonder Boys is basically the story of Grady Tripp, a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university. At present, Grady’s life has reached an impossible stalemate. He feels as if his creative source has completely dried up; unable to complete a follow-up to his most widely acclaimed novel – Arsonist’s Daughter. Worse, Grady has slipped into a sort of pie-eyed disillusionment, feeling disengaged from his students and even his lover, university chancellor, Sara Gaskell (Francis McDormand), whose husband, Walter (Richard Thomas), is the Dean of the English Department. As Grady’s third wife, Emily, has only just left him, he has taken up with his Master’s student, Hannah Green (Katie Holmes), while also mentoring the decidedly odd and remotely suicidal, James Leer (Toby Maguire), in whom he recognizes, not only a spark of his former self, but also a brilliant future as a great writer. Having labored over 2500 pages of a novel he has yet not the faintest inkling on how to end, Grady spends most of his free time smoking marijuana to numb his ambivalence. Hannah is a good, solid writer whose opinion Grady greatly admires. But James is brilliant – even if he doesn’t know it yet. Hannah, who is renting a room in Grady's house, and, is attracted to Grady, is somewhat disheartened he does not share her verve for a more involving romantic entanglement. Meanwhile, James is remote, introverted, and, dark – having memorized a list of celebrity suicides he can recite at a moment’s notice.

During a gathering of the alumni at the Gaskells' home, Sara quietly reveals to Grady she is pregnant with his child. In need of some fresh air, Grady’s woes are compounded when he finds James waiting outside, clutching what he suggests is a replica gun won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays.  Instead, the gun turns out to be real. Quite by accident, James murders the Gaskells’ one-eyed dog after it tries to maul Grady. James also steals a very valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia from the house – the star’s fur-lined waist coat. Keeping all this a secret from Sara, Grady hides the dead dog in the trunk of his car while he contemplates how to unravel the tangled bits of his increasingly complicated life. Concerned about James, Grady allows him into his home and shadows him for the weekend. Grady’s feeble attempts to know more about James’ life gradually expose that James is lying about virtually everything from his past – the critical moment coming when James professes to have come from the idyllic hamlet of Carvel – the fictional town where presumably all of MGM’s Andy Hardy movies were shot.

Meanwhile, Grady's editor, Terry Crabtree is in town to attend the university's annual WordFest, a literary event for aspiring authors. Actually, all Terry wants to know is what progress Grady has made on his novel as the future of both men is at stake. Arriving with Antonia Sloviak (Michael Cavadias) a transvestite he met on the flight, Terry and Antonia become intimate in an upstairs bedroom at the Gaskells' party, after which Terry takes an immediate shine to James. Plying the boy with booze during a pub crawl, Terry flirts with the semi-conscious, and newly liberated James. The two spend the night together in one of Grady's spare rooms. Pressed to reconsider his own destiny, Grady reveals to Walter he is in love with Sara. Meanwhile, Walter has made the connection between his stolen memorabilia and James. Now, the Pittsburgh police arrive to escort James to the Chancellor's office and discuss the ramifications of his actions. Alas, the stolen memorabilia, left in Grady's rather weather-beaten 1966 Ford Galaxie 500, has since gone missing, along with the car. Recovering the vehicle intact, and with Grady’s manuscript still on the front seat, Grady is confronted by Vernon Hardapple (Richard Knox) a man claiming the car belongs to him. After an altercation, Grady’s manuscript blows out the window of the car and is scattered to the wind – lost forever. A slightly repentant Vernon decides to give Grady a ride to the university with his wife, Oola (Jane Adams) wearing the stolen waist coat, unaware of its significance.

Recognizing that the only way he can make things right is to accept life’s difficult choices, Grady tells Oola the back story of the coat, but allows her to keep it anyway. Worried his decision will ruin James’ future, Terry implores Walter not to press charges by agreeing to publish his book on Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe. Having distinguished himself at WordFest, James is granted a scholarship – also, a lucrative book-publishing deal from Terry. Grady recounts the fates of the other characters we have come to know. Hannah graduated with honors and became a magazine editor. James quit school and moved to New York to rework his novel. Grady finished a new book – not a sequel to his original, but an account of his more recent events in life. These were published and, in turn, also became a best seller. The movie concludes with Sara and Grady walking with their child toward the house they have since bought together.

Wonder Boys is an exceptionally well-written, expertly played and genuinely affecting piece of entertainment, and such a shame that it failed to find its audience in 2000. Hanson, who left us much too soon on Sept. 20, 2016, afflicted with frontotemporal dementia, dying of ‘natural causes’ – age 71 – has poured everything he had to offer into this magnificent drama. The Nevada-born/L.A.-based Hanson began his Hollywood career in 1970, co-writing The Dunwich Horror, and then, Sweet Kill (1973) and, The Silent Partner (1978). And while Hanson would segue, seemingly without much effort, between comedies and dramas, he was also as noted for his compelling thrillers like 1992’s The Hand That Rocks The Cradle.  Undeniably, his greatest critical success remains the 9-time Oscar-nominated, L.A. Confidential (1997), for which Hanson adapted and directed from James Ellroy’s dark and scathing novel, interweaving the lives of three Los Angeles’ police detectives into an intriguing murder plot. Passionate about film in general, and the works of Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray in particular, Hanson worked right until the end; forced to withdraw from 2012’s Chasing Mavericks due to ill health, replaced by Michael Apted for the final days of shooting.

Hanson’s passion for Wonder Boys is self-evident almost from the moment Bob Dylan’s Oscar-winning song, Things Have Changed begins to play over the main titles. We sense, through Dylan’s uncanny knack for exerting world-weariness, a strange personal saga about to emerge, and, from here, Hanson never disappoints us for a moment. The cast is superb with not a false moment to be had among them. As the morally bankrupt academic who finds redemption in the arms of a married woman, Michael Douglas adds yet another subtly nuanced performance to his repertoire. Robert Downey Jr. does as much with his crazy-quilt of a cakewalk as the ruthless bisexual in search of his next big score in the literary world and…well…elsewhere. Frances McDormand is marginally wasted here; her role, limited. But Katie Holmes excels as the smart and sassy girl who can figure things out for herself. Steve Kloves’ intertwines these lives into a tightly knit ball of raw emotional intensity. Both Grady and James’ insecurities resonate with the audience, perhaps because we all have dreams prematurely dashed, to render us disillusioned and deflated.  Mercifully, the picture’s strength is it provides the opportunity for wish fulfillment – a reprieve, to dream again.  Writing this good rarely comes along in American movies. That it went virtually unacknowledged in 2000 is a grotesquely absurd oversight one sincerely wished to have been rectified by Paramount Home Video’s Blu-ray release.

Alas, Paramount continues to go the quick n’ dirty route where its catalog is concerned, splitting their efforts across legitimately authored Blu-ray releases, earmarked for their ‘Paramount Presents…’ franchise, and burn-on-demand MOD discs, like Wonder Boys.  Why? Why MOD when legitimately authored Blu’s are feasible, and have a better shelf life on the whole? Frankly, it is a question that fans of Paramount product deserve an answer to, as the marketing behind the aforementioned franchise from the studio seems indiscriminately to pull titles within and without its own home-grown catalog, while virtually all of the MOD discs have hailed from the Paramount library! Dumb marketing decision!  At least, Paramount has put in some effort with a new 1080p transfer that offers us a consistently rendered image, bright, sharp and well-defined. Dante Spinotti’s use of color is subdued. In mid-winter, Pittsburgh, how could it be anything else? Even so, the image leans slightly on the ‘contrasty’ side, suggesting some untoward digital manipulation – a holdover from the DVD master?  And yet, there is a sort of dilapidated romantic elegance to these images, a sort of earthy rot and decay that nevertheless finds elemental warmth, perhaps from nothing more than the characterizations set before these cozily illuminated backdrops. Whatever the case, colors here are rich and fully saturated. Flesh tones are quite natural in appearance. The audio is 5.0 DTS and very well-suited for this primarily dialogue-driven movie. Extras are limited to junket material, produced at the time the picture was being made, with scant interview footage from the stars, Bob Dylan’s music video, plus, an audio commentary from Hanson, and, the film’s original theatrical trailer. Bottom line: Wonder Boys comes very highly recommended. Tragically, the Blu-ray is not in the upper echelons of mastering efforts, and, ought to have been legitimately authored - not MOD!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

2