Wonderland

'Wonderland' is a story about ordinary people told in an extraordinarily beautiful way.

The visual style of the film draws you close--you're not watching a movie, but you are an observer, an eavesdropper on the lives of a South London family and their friends. It's almost as if you saw someone on the bus, and then were able to follow them to their home and around where they work, unseen, for a few days. You believe these people exist, in reality--you _recognize_ these characters because you've seen them before.

There's an incredible musical score by Michael Nyman. It supports and builds the drama of the story, and illuminates the inner struggles of the characters.

It's a beautiful movie. Fans of Wong Kar-Wai's ChungKing Express will enjoy this.

I saw this movie at a Saturday midnight showing in Barcelona, with Spanish subtitles. You could feel the emotion run through the audience. Everyone stayed for the credits.

This movie has only just come out on DVD in Britain, that is a shamefully long time for a film to reach the country it was made in. But now it is here, and possibly finding a new audience, I thought I'd write a quick review. If you have read some of the other reviews, you will no doubt be aware of the 'kitchen sink' factor in this film. Well, I'm not going to deny that, the subject matter would not look out of place in a soap opera. . . .however it is the performances, the script and the fantastic style of this movie which pulls it out of the mundane and into the cinematic. Michael Winterbottom is clearly a director who like several of his British contemporaries such as Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows, believes that the drama around us in everyday life is worthy of the big screen. The film has a fine ensemble of characters, three very different sisters, their estranged brother and squabbling parents. The performances are brave and heartfelt in all cases, and even though the drama takes place over one weekend, the characters really do evolve. The most enticing thing about the film is the way it is shot and scored. Sean Bobbitt's time lapse photography and dogma style 16mm cinematography combined with Michael Nyman's emotive music is a really fantastic combination. This film shows London how the people who live there see it, namely from the ground. Nearly every film set in London now seems to have to include the Gherkin, the Tate modern and the Millennium wheel, what Winterbottom presents us with is something simultaneously far less and far more remarkable.

This is a very artful piece of work which looks like it was made by the Dogma mob – hand –held camera, minimal lighting, grainy film, but it is actually very well put together by Michael Winterbottom with superior acting, good musical score (by Michael Nyman) and a reasonable amount of dramatic tension. Initially I thought `God this is boring' as three days in the life of three sisters and their family, lovers and friends, all ordinary Londoners, unfolded, but by about a third of the way through it got interesting. By the end I was starting even to care about the characters. It was a little like watching a television series where the fairly ordinary characters unfold slowly, but somehow over time get a hold on your imagination. Except of course this film is just over 100 minutes long.

We see most of the story through Nadia, the middle sister, played by Gina McKee, who last popped up at a dinner party in `Notting Hill'. This time it's inner South London, and Nadia is answering lonely hearts ads without great success. Her older sister Debbie (Shirley Henderson, the tiny diva from `Topsy Turvy') who has an ex husband and a 10 year old son, seems to have no trouble picking up men, while Mollie (Mollie Parker) the youngest, is awaiting the birth of her first child. In a whirl of lights, crowded streets, traffic, noisy bars, cigarette smoke and small ill-lit rooms, their interwoven stories are played out. In the background, but close at hand are Mum and Dad, despising each other but still living in the same house.

All the sisters are well portrayed but Kika Markham and Jack Shepard, trusty old troupers that they are, practically steal the show as the disillusioned parents. The sister's men (and their mostly absent brother) are portrayed as weak, shallow or stupid, but the sisters are a forgiving bunch (unlike their mother).

It really is quite an achievement to make an interesting, honest movie about lives so mundane that they make `This Life' look like `Melrose Place'. If I were such an ordinary Londoner and I saw this film I think I'd experience the shock of recognition. And then consider emigrating. The life of the contemporary ordinary female Londoner is not far removed from quiet desperation, it seems. And perhaps that's so for the men too. It's just that they notice it a bit less.

This may be the best film of 2000 (at least that's when it was released in Australia).

Whilst film-makers like P.T. Anderson have made admirable attempts at personal drama in the last few years, and Mike Leigh continues to tell us that no-one suffers like the poor (as if we didn't know that), Michael Winterbottom has re-defined the genres. This is English kitchen sink drama without the tired clichés of class wars, which have seemed a bit anachronistic since the fall of the Tories.

Shot in a stunning cinemascope (1:2.35) and available light, with the tiniest of crews, this is London as you've only seen it if you've seen it for yourself.

The cast shines. I defy anyone to make it through this film without falling in love with Gina McKee. That's not to say that Shirley Henderson and Molly Parker are anything less than charming. Ian Hart and Stuart Townsend are wonderful. Keep an eye out for the beautifully natural performance of David Fahm as Franklyn. Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham and John Simm round out the main cast with equally powerful performances.

A great script from first time screen-writer Lawrence Coriat. Michael Nyman turns out his most subtle and restrained music score yet. Michael Winterbottom is turning out to be the Stanley Kubrick of the 21st century. Who else has been able to jump from one genre to another with such ease and grace?

This is a compelling film, well worth having your own copy of.

This isn't a cute film. It's no "Notting Hill", that's for sure. How London has been portrayed in this film is no advert for the place. Cold, nervous, loud, lonely. This is London. Warts and all. Shot in an eerie, lonely manner the film deals with individuals, whose lives have criss-crossed (or ultimately will).

I suppose at the hub of the film is a tired train-wreck of a marriage between two upper middle-aged people. The mother, unable to show affection, unable to give anything at all, and a father who keeps the act up, while hurting deep down. He's popular with the neighbors, his wife is aggressive, spiteful and is in denial of what a couch-potato she has become.

They have four children, all "adults". Three girls and a son, of whom they have very sparse contact (the father dotes, and longs for him). It's in the lives and relationships of the three daughters that the film is centered. All of whom have scars from their up-bringing. I presume the mother's problems have been handed over to the girls. One, a young mother, has difficulty showing affection to her son. Another constantly on the look out for someone to love her. It's very, very agonizing. The third daughter is heavily pregnant, and is in a relationship with a guy who has problems of his own.

Gritty. Scary and ultimately warm. (Well a few degrees above 0 Kelvin, anyway).

I found it very interesting. Makes one think.