The Fruit Machine

The film "Wonderland" (aka "The FruitMachine") is a surprisingly dippy, imaginative romp involving two gay teenaged boys who happen to witness a gangland murder and are forced to flee Liverpool for Brighton. The film takes many inventive turns, several of which involve Eddie's dream lover, a man-dolphin hybrid who actually appears at crucial moments in the film to save Eddie and his partner, Michael. There are many subplots and colorful supporting characters, and the ending, albeit sad, is inevitable. It's worth it if only for the dance sequence at the Fruit Machine, a gay showbar in Liverpool, in which Michael competes for thirty quid. His dance is both erotic and touchingly naive. Both boys, Emile Charles and Tony Forsyth, should have had big careers in film. Apart from one distracting editing lapse that blunts the finale, this is a superior film, in that it refuses to indulge in stereotyping and doesn't condescend to its lead characters.

The Fruit Machine is a tender and loving film about a pair of gay male teens from Liverpool. But if the pejorative of fruit is to describe them, than they are as different as apples and oranges.

Emile Charles is an effete biracial sixteen year old who likes nothing more than watching old flickswith his mom at home. Tony Forsyth is a street wise rent bpy and that's redundancy because if you aren't street wise you won't last long as a rent boy. Forsyth has to do a lot looking out for Charles.

Never more so when they witness a murder at a gay club of its drag queen owner with a machete. They flee to Brighton and have some further adventures there.

The boys are a pair of finely scripted characters fleshed out nicely with good performances and direction. In the supporting cast noe Robbie Coltrane as the lckless club owner.

One good gay themed film that has held up well since the 80s,

Do you remember the line "I depend on the kindness of strangers"? Well, of course it is from Tennessee Williams‚ "A Streetcar Named Desire‘, and sums up the meaning of the whole play. As it does sum up the meaning of this film. It's about the fight of imagination and reality – and again reality wins. Or so it seems.

If this film has any flaw it's the crime story woven around its center. The gay-hating killer seems an overused cliché nowadays but at the time of the film's production it was probably more than a symbol.

Nevertheless, the film moves – at least me – even a decade after it was made. If not a masterpiece, at least a very, very good film.

Reminds me of my own youth in similar circumstances and reminds me of the scrapes I got in to with my late best friend, in the late 80s in the North of England. Ignore the stereotypes...sometimes the stereotypes actually exist, you know. Brilliant.

The characters are well drawn and the dream sequences add some mysticism. Whilst the plot is a little crazy its a genuine,sad and heartwarming tragedy, which in view of the lack of a big Hollywood style budget, for me at least, is something that cheap British films excel at. Well done. Its s ashame most of the young actors did not develop their careers, but looking back on such films it only adds to the importance of it for me.

No plot spoilers. I saw this on tv when it was made,1988? Younger viewers might be surprised that Channel 4 used to make some great dramas as well as some awful ones. Now it shows reality crap and horse racing.

I recall liking and being a bit shocked when I saw this. There is not a lot to the story but it is a trip back to the 1980s I suppose. I had looked for a long time for the dvd and am a bit disappointed that I did not enjoy watching the film more than I did