Wondrous Oblivion is about a young boy named David Weisman (played by Sam Smith), in 1960 London, who dreams of one day of being a cricket star, however there is one problem: he has no talent. This does not stop David’s passion for the sport, much to the chagrin of his classmates and family.
One day new neighbors, the Samuels, move onto David’s block which causes a stir within the community. The new neighbors are from Jamaica. This causes racial tensions to rise further for David’s family, who are already subtly persecuted by their neighbors because they are Jewish. It is further raised as David sees Dennis Samuel (played by Delroy Lindo) build a cricket fence in his backyard. Seeing this as his opportunity to build his cricket skills, he breaks his mother’s (played by Emily Woof), rules by going over and being coached by Dennis.
The other neighbors quickly take notice to David’s time spent with the Samuels and trouble begins for Mrs. Weisman in the form of two busybodies, Mrs. Dudley (Mary Cunningham) and Mrs. Wilson (Carol MacReady). At first to try to coax her into talking to their landlord into getting rid of the Samuels, when Mrs. Weisman does not go through with it, she continuously receives taunts and harassment from the neighborhood. But this does not stop her from allowing David to spend time with the Samuels. As time passes, Mrs. Weisman’s own relationship with Dennis begins to grow. Meanwhile David’s cricket skills improve and his dreams of being a part of his school’s cricket team come to pass.
Delroy Lindo does a great job as Dennis Samuel, the big hearted patriarch of the Samuel family. Sam Smith also does well as the young David Weisman, the innocent young boy who faced a lot of challenges because of his inability to play cricket and because of his religion. Emily Woof was impressive in role as Anna Weisman, a woman who married young who is struggling in her role as a mother and handling the neighborhood busybodies. Director Paul Morrison did a good job on this film for the small special effects on the trading card scenarios and for the story over all, which he wrote. He chose well in having Delroy Lindo and Emily Woof, they are both great actors who played their parts very well.
This was a great film to watch. It’s great for family and adolescents who are learning history of the 1960s. But for the average viewer, the story is the average boy coming-of-age set in the 1960s. I personally enjoyed it because it is relatively cute. However there are scenes in the film that are never really explained why they are there.
One is where David collects and plays with cricket player cards which come to life for him. It would have been interesting to find out what type of role those scenes played in the film, but you never know. You are left to the assumption that it is all in David’s imagination. There are also scenes in which go on for more time than what they should. An example is when David obtains his dream of getting on the cricket team at school. There are scenes in which he continuously excels at games, but how long do they have to go on until you have to say enough?
I recommend this film for families who want to see a good coming-of-age story. Kids would like it for the ‘hero’. Parents would like it because it doesn’t have much violence or have any foul language. This story is good because it is not taking place in the United States (which are the typical settings) and different time, 1960. I wouldn’t recommend it for the typical movie viewer because it is a repetitive story. But overall it is a great story.