The more literal translation of the original title of WONDERLAND is "Homeland", and it would have given a better idea of what this movie is really about.
A mysterious and ominous cloud starts to grow inside the Swiss border, eventually covering the entire country and portending a deadly and devastating hurricane the likes of which has never been seen before. Against this backdrop, the film traces the stories of various individuals as a way of critiquing Swiss society.
First, the positives: the concept itself is not bad, and having evidently different directors handling intermingling story threads is innovative. Though natural disasters have been used before as a backdrop for at least some social commentary in cinema, the singular focus on that aspect makes this movie somewhat unique in that regard. The cinematography is at least in some parts quite good, as is the acting.
Unfortunately, the film does several things which are bound to turn off much of the audience. Foremost among these is the kind of bait-and-switch it pulls: we never see the disaster because the movie ends before it occurs, and the fact that not even an explanation is offered for why it happens betrays that the storm is but the flimsiest excuse to make a cinematic critique of Swiss society.
Another problem is that most of the individual stories are not all that compelling. In part, that may be because the film tries to cover too much: it touches upon themes of the elites trying to look out for themselves at the expense of ordinary citizens, xenophobia and rising fascism, the isolation and possible neglect of the elderly, the social disaffectation of the youth, the superficiality of personal relationships and the dangers of bottling up one's emotions in a society that has a reputation for running literally like clock-work.
In that running time, even without depicting the actual disaster, these themes can only be treated in so much depth, and it is quite possible that the human interest aspect of the stories suffered for it (The ones I found the most interesting were those of the cab driver and the police woman).
An air of collective guilt suffuses the atmosphere of the entire movie every bit as the impending storm does, and at one point it is even explicitly suggested that the storm may be long-overdue punishment for the Swiss. The self-flagellation becomes at times a bit much, overtaking any ostensible concern for the fate of the characters due to the coming catastrophe. It also makes me wonder how to reconcile this with various studies which claim that the Swiss are among the happiest folks in the world.
I thought the abrupt non-ending ending was a really poor way to finish the film. Even disregarding that the film fails to deliver on its promise of a natural disaster, it leaves several story threads unsatisfactorily dangling. More importantly, even devoting a small amount of time to the storm could have offered an opportunity for the redemption of at least some of the characters, so that we could have a little inspiration and not just self-righteous finger-pointing sans resolution.
