WONDERLAND
Directed by: James Cox.
Produced by: Michael Paseornek & Holly Wiersma.
Written by: James Cox, Captain Mauzner, Todd Samovitz & D. Loriston Scott.
Director of Photography: Michael Grady.
Edited by: Jeff McEvoy.
Music by: Cliff Martinez.
Released by: Lions Gate.
Country of Origin: USA. 109 min. Rated: R.
With: Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow, Kate Bosworth & Dylan McDermott.

The mystery and deconstruction of the brutal 1981 multiple homicides on Wonderland Avenue is at the heart of this fast-paced film. Interviewed by police detectives, former porn star turned coke head John Holmes (Kilmer) blames the killings on the victims themselves - retaliation for robbing underworld kingpin Eddie Nash. However, the film’s second half is told through the eyes of David Lind (McDermott ), a drug dealing ex-con whose girlfriend was one of the victims. He claims Holmes, an erstwhile drug buddy, had ratted him and his gang out to Nash, burning the candle at both ends. But this is not Rashomon - by the end director James Cox clearly points his finger toward the perpetuator(s). With its roving tracking shots, imaginative montages, and early ‘80s LA setting involving a wash-up porn stud, comparisons to Boogie Nights are inevitable. But in Wonderland, the main character, Holmes, is constantly high or strung out. He and most of the needy drug addicted characters are one-dimensional. However, the most fascinating character is Sharon Holmes, the star’s estranged wife who disavowed her husband’s celluloid career. As played by Lisa Kudrow, she’s righteously angry, but you can’t help but notice the mannerisms of her TV character Phoebe (Friends) seeping through her performance. And the end credits, which reveal the outcome of the case and the people involved, raises more questions, giving one the sense that a much more dramatic film could have been made. A more intriguing angle would have centered around Sharon and Dawn - Holmes’s teenage lover, to whom Sharon is like a surrogate mother - and explored why these two betrayed women aided and abetted Holmes to point of possibly obstructing the murder investigation. The real-life Dawn is one of Wonderland’s associate producers, which may explain why Wonderland remains too subjective and doesn’t probe deep enough. KT
November 9, 2003