Stars: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes, Robert Downey Jr, Rip Torn, Richard Knox, Jane Adams, Philip Bosco, George Grizzard, Richard Thomas, Kevin Bishop, Alan Tudyk, Anika Bobb, Michael Cavadias, Patricia Cray, James Ellroy, Yusuf Gatewood, Marita Golden, Elisabeth Granli, Richard Hidlebird, June Hildreth, James Kisicki, Rob McElhenney, Charis Michelsen, Lenora Nemetz, Bingo O'Malley, Victor Quinaz, Screamer, Katherine Sweeney, Tracey D. Turner, Bill Velin

Director: Curtis Hanson

Summary: College Professor and novelist, Grady Tripp, is suffering from writer's block which causes him to be be filled with self doubt. Based on the novel by Michael Chabon.

In Curtis Hanson's WONDER BOYS, based on the novel by Michael Chabon, Michael Douglas delivers one of his most compelling performances as Grady Tripp, a disheveled, perpetually adolescent English professor amiably coasting toward a midlife crisis. On the inaugural day of his university's literary festival, Grady's third wife leaves him, and his mistress, university chancellor Sara Gaskell (Frances McDormand), announces that she's pregnant with their child. To further complicate matters, Grady's reckless editor, Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.), desperate to revive his flaccid career, arrives to pick up Grady's far-from-finished seven-years-in-the-making follow-up to his critically acclaimed first book. As if that weren't enough to keep him reeling, Grady soon becomes an unwilling accomplice to a canine homicide and the heist of a rare jacket once worn by Marilyn Monroe, both committed by his brightest student--the languid, slightly pathological James Leer (Tobey Maguire). Dressed in a ratty pink bathrobe and driving a stolen car with a dead dog in the trunk, Grady must now find a way to return Marilyn's coat, write the great American novel, nurture James's literary talents, discourage the advances of an amorous coed (Katie Holmes), avoid the wrath of a tiny James Brown look-alike (Richard Knox), and reconcile with Sara...all before the weekend is over.

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Reviewed by: davybozal24-7
Posted on April 30, 2006 7:53 PM

College tutor Grady Tripp ( Michael Douglas ) was once a great writer but has now reached a mid - life crisis . His married mistress
Sara Gaskell ( Frances McDormand ) is pregnant , his wife leaves him , his editor Terry Crabtree ( Robert Downey Jr. ) is visiting to check on his new , still unfinished book and he's saddled with an oddball student ( Tobet Maguire ) . Can he get back his old spark ?

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Wonder Boysis one of those films in which more twists and turns disrupt the life of the hero in one weekend than would bother most of us our whole lives. Professor Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) is an aging one-novel wunderkind at a small Pittsburgh college who's labouring on his seven-years-in-the-making, 2000-plus-page second opus with no end in sight. The morning of the college's literary Glastonbury, WordFest, Grady's wife leaves him; that evening, his mistress (Frances McDormand) announces she's pregnant (she's also the Chancellor of the school, as well as the wife of Grady's boss). Grady's voracious editor (Robert Downey Jr) is also in town, transvestite date in tow, determined to read the highly anticipated new book; there's also the nubile student (Katie Holmes), who seems more than willing to ease Grady's pain. And then there's James Leer (Tobey Maguire), the mordant and brilliant writing student who's the catalyst for Grady's lost weekend, which involves a soon-to-be-dead blind dog, a stolen car and the jacketthat Marilyn Monroe wore when she wed Joe DiMaggio.

The writing and acting in this film is superb. Douglas, by turns dryly sarcastic and sincerely heartfelt , single-handedly makes up for years of alpha-male posturing as the passive pothead Tripp, and whoever thought of pairing him with the resilient McDormand is brilliant--they convey the complexities and history of their relationship in a single glance or movement. The rest of the cast also are exceptional, with Maguire in a breakthrough performance and Downey at his manic best. The ending may feel a little too pat, but after everything these characters have been through, it seems a just reward. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Production Interviews - 1. Cast & Crew, Music Video - 1. Bob Dylan, Featurette - 1. Wonder Boys Singer, Songwriters, Scene Access, Interactive Tour - Location Map
Year:	2000
Release Date:	February 7, 2005
Runtime:	108 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	784682
Keywords:	Boys, Comedy, Off, General, Drama, Wonder, Schedule
Genre:	Drama