Jogo de Conflitos

I've not a lot to add to what's already been said (it's nice how movies like this attract intelligent and insightful comments). I didn't think it owed a lot to `Billy Elliot' but there certainly parallels with `Bend it Like Beckham' - sport as a way to acceptance in a new society. The wrinkle here is that young David Wiseman has desire, but no apparent talent. The suspension of our disbelief is severely strained when his new West Indian neighbour Dennis coaches him to competence in his tiny back yard. As coach Ian Holm put it to aspiring Olympian Ben Cross in `Chariots of Fire' `an athlete does not find a coach, the coach finds the athlete'. Well, I suppose Dennis must have seen something in David. And David certainly has dreams of success via his talking cricket card collection.

Otherwise this is a perfectly delightful movie about growing up and fitting in. Even David's mother's flirtation with Dennis does not end in disaster. The reactionaries fail to drive away the newcomers and it doesn't even rain at the final cricket match (this can't be England!). Gary Sobers and Frank Worrall (played by actors) turn up. Pretty fanciful but utterly charming.

"Wondrous Oblivion" is a film that has as its motive one of the most boring sports out there (at least for those who don't play it) – cricket. Thankfully, Paul Morrison's second feature, after the award winning "Solomon and Gaenor" (1999), is not about cricket at all.

We are given a coming of age story of a Jewish boy, David (Sam Smith), born in the family of two Holocaust survivors in the 1950s England: Victor (Stanley Townsend), a Polish émigré, and a very young Ruth (Emily Woof), coming from Germany. The boy has an empowering passion for cricket, obvious from his massive card collection of cricket celebrities. However, he is totally rubbish at it. His destiny is to change when a Jamaican émigré family comes next door, and sets up an improvised cricket court. Dennis Samuels (Delroy Lindo) teaches the boy the craftsmanship of the sport, and becomes a close friend of David.

All seems a very familiar bad-sportsman-turns-great story, but Morrison's script is ingenious enough not to fall in the stereotypical Hollywood film-making. The boy doesn't end up the great sportsman that we all wish him to be, but learns something greater, something more important in the process. And this is the 'wondrous oblivion' the author intended to deliver… The 1960s as a whole becomes a decade of surprising changes and animosity, and yet all characters seem to remain static in their conception of their beliefs.

This is a good film, and it is worth seeing for the original cinematography and a moving performance from Emily Woof ("Passion", "The Full Monty"), which steals the whole film. Watch out for the dance scene with Lindo, which is dominated both by passion, and religious taboos, and it is surprisingly sexy. The only three problems in the movie are the simplicity with each the Holocaust theme is being treated, the poor knowledge of Jewish faith, as well as the stereotypical two-dimensionality of the entire supporting cast. But this applies only for a picky audience.

"Wondrous Oblivion" is one of those films that one cannot dislike, or at least loathe. Pacing, beautiful, and quite funny really.

A sensitive and well-made study of the impact of two waves of immigrants on London communities: the first in the form of a young family of German-born Jews driven out by Hitler, the second in the form of their new neighbours from Jamaica. Cricket is the medium which draws together young cricket-mad David and his new neighbours - especially the cricket-made father and daughter of the family. But the friendship also leads David's young mother, neglected by her workaholic, decent and God-fearing husband, to develop a crush on her more warm-hearted, more vibrant but also decent and God-fearing West Indian neighbour whose habit of spending all day in a string vest and more free-and-easy manner is something of a contrast with her husband's straightlaced attitude and permanent uniform of woolly cardigan. Both David and Ruth fall to the temptation to exploit their new friends: David uses Judy to help him improve his cricket, Ruth attempts to use Dennis for the sexual satisfaction she is missing out on as her husband works all hours to improve the family's fortunes (and send his children to expensive schools). But when Judy turns up at David's birthday party he turns her away; and when Ruth makes a pass at Dennis, she is politely but firmly repulsed. This is a lovely film that deserves to be remembered; it is very accurate of the period full of good little touches but also has a strong, positive ending in which both couples, and both families, become stronger and closer despite their diverging paths, as the enmity of the local racists draws them together in near-tragedy.

This is a delightful and very entertaining movie. You do not have to be mad on cricket to love it (my partner Janie proves that point) but I suspect it helps.

My own background is quite similar to that of the young lad (not quite so long ago, not quite so poor, not quite so bad at cricket without coaching, not quite so good with coaching......) so my own views on the films charms and resonances are probably unrepresentative. Suffice it to say that the film touched almost all of the right buttons.

There are some lovely, amusing bits. For example, one sequence shows several short shots of the characters playing "yard cricket", including one shot of them trying to practice catching in their sowesters in the pouring rain. Hilarious and delightful.

The racism theme is handled with great sensitivity, but without the complexity that might otherwise make the film profound rather than obvious. The film is sentimental, at the end especially so, to the point of being cheesy. But then quattro formaggio with extra cheese and parmesan on top tastes pretty good.

There are one or two historical anomalies. Most reports of the film I have seen refer to the date as 1960. West Indies toured England with Worrell and Sobers in 1957 & 1963. Worrell was finished by 1966. I think it must therefore be 1963. But there's a lovely scene where the Jewish mother and West Indian father dance to "I'm in a Dancing Mood" by Delroy Wilson - published 1966. In fact most of the Ska (or should I describe some of it as Rock Steady) would have been post 1963 I think. But I suppose I should get a life rather than fret about these things - the music was wonderful. And juxtaposing Ska with "Micky Katz and his Kosher Jammers" and yard cricket worked surprisingly well.

It is a lovely film and well worth the investment of 106 minutes to smile, laugh and be moved.

This is a gem of a film which was the opener for the Maine Jewish Film Festival. But it is not about just one of these topics. It is a wondrous story which could take place anywhere in the world. The film succeeds because it uses tired themes ("there goes the neighborhood") and puts a fresh slant on them with terrific acting and cinematography. You do not have to know anything about any of the subjects, Jamaica, Judiasm or cricket, but you will learn something about humanity when seeing this film. Sure, it is not perfect but it is rare to see a bigger budget film handle these themes so well. This film is definitely worth seeking out.