Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland

Somehow feel compelled to write about this film because the 3 times i've seen it I have fallen more in love with it. It won't appeal to people who like films to be fast and furious as it ploughs its own modest furrow. Its shot on hand held 16mm camera giving it a documentary feel. As for the plot, there isn't one, instead we get a dysfunctional South London family providing us with touching episodes within their mundane lives. Like Eastenders if it ditched the cheeky mockney cliches and was actually believeable.

Doesn't sound thrilling but if you stick with it you'll realise that you actually care about the characters and hence find interest in their humble goings on. The waitress looking for love, the man unable to deal with his partner's pregnancy, the single mum, the jack the lad scouser, the hard done by husband and the troubled recluse. Needless to say the acting is exemplary.

Perhaps it would be unbearable were it not for the amazing soundtrack provided by Michael Nyman and his orchestra. The music plays its own character giving the events an emotional resonance that weaves hope into the pain. There's a great night bus scene which makes me wonder if the director has actually experienced the trauma of getting on one sober and tired.

Its safe to say Hollywood and its fans would't touch it with a barge pole and this is to its credit. A film that shouldn't really appeal but does about lives that don't often. And I didn't even use the word melancholy once.  ¶ Saturday, May 01, 2004