Regie:
Curtis Hanson

Drehbuch:
Steve Kloves

Darsteller/innen:
Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand,
Robert Downey, Jr., Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Rip Torn,
Philip Bosco, Jane Adams

Drama/Komödie, USA/UK/Deutschland/Japan
2000, 111 Minuten, Farbe, OV: Englisch

Academy Award® nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Editing, winner of the coveted golden statuette for Best Music, Original Song (by Bob Dylan), WONDER BOYS is a banquet of acting talent, a feast for film fans who value character above special effects, dialogue above whizz-bang.

Each one of WONDER BOYS’ leads has carried a film on their own. Put them together and the result is multi-layered, multi-facetted wry comedy that rarely comes finer.

Academy Award® winner Michael Douglas plays Grady Tripp, a professor-writer struggling with writer’s block. Except, in his case, he’s unable to put that final full stop and finish the damn thing! Being a former wonder boy, someone who had great success early in life, he’s terrified of being seen as a has-been unworthy of his status as a cultural icon. What isn’t helping is that he’s got his married mistress and boss’ wife (Academy Award® winner Frances McDormand as sublime as ever) pregnant.

To this volatile mix comes Tobey Maguire as the unstable James Leer, a gifted writing student who just happens to bring out homo-erotic leanings in Tripp’s agent and fellow former wonder boy, Crabtree (played by the immortal Robert Downey, Jr.), who’s in desperate need to prove himself again as well.

Can things get worse? You bet! The university’s annual literary festival is about to start, Tripp has hit the dope in a big way and Leer has just shot Tripp’s lover’s husband’s dog!

Life crises as humour and poignancy, directed by Academy Award ® winner Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”), WONDER BOYS poses and answers some very delicate questions in a highly entertaining and intelligent way. It’s the kind of film you thought they didn’t make anymore.