Wondrous Oblivion proves my long held belief that most movies generally should not have a writer-slash-director. While it attempts to tell us a story about love, race, intolerance and desperation; the real attempt was in Wondrous Oblivion was telling a story at all.
Little David Wiseman (Sam Smith) wants nothing more than to be a great cricket player. As holocaust survivors, his parents desire something different from their son. Luck presents itself when a Jamaican family moves in next door. Dennis (Delroy Lindo), the father of the family, installs a cricket net. David doesn’t see the color of his Dennis’ skin, but his parents do. Their neighbors, who just barely tolerate the Wiseman’s jewishness, have open distain for Dennis and his family. Things get interesting when David goes over to play with Dennis and his mother, Ruth (Emily Woof), finds much needed companionship by their new neighbor.
Wondrous Oblivion is a frustrating movie because it has such an interesting story to tell but they way they told it left me to physically hold my eyelids up. There are dozens of unnecessary scenes that clog the pacing and stretch the story too thin. Paul Morrison, the writer and director, is mind-blowingly wrong about the amount of elementary school level cricket games any one person can sit through before suicide becomes a perfectly rational option. I actually had to stand up and move around during the movie to keep from committing a movie faux pas (snoring). I beg of you, Paul Morrison, re-release this with a better editor. The pacing is a shame because it destroys a movie with an important story and delightful acting.
Delroy Lindo makes Dennis subtle, complex and mysterious. He surprised me with his ability to relate to children and still be a little creepy. You get the feeling that he has some kind of past; one sprinkled with darkness, but not a horrifying one. The quality of his acting really shines in the relationship he has with Ruth. Their relationship is complicated and you can tell he is thinking about everything when she is around; race, class, their spouses and children. He doesn’t have to say anything but you know exactly what is on his mind when she’s around.
Ruth is my favorite character. Emily Woof is tragic and sad as Ruth. Ruth married too young and now is unsure about the path of her life but feels trapped by her religious traditions and the circumstances of her family. She adores her son but the audience gets the feeling that she has no adoration for her husband. Woof gives Ruth such an undercurrent of fear that even when she is happy, Woof restrains Ruth’s joy. Every smile is natural but more complex than just an expression of joy. It is the overcoming of an invisible restraint. When she is interacting with her son, you can tell she feels soft and a little more open.
David is a rumpus youngster with cricket fame dreams. Sam Smith gives David such a youthful ideology and ignorance. David doesn’t cognitively know that his grandparents were killed by Hitler. He says they were killed in the war. Smith plays the scenes about his grandparents with the emotional significance of a grain of sand, which gives the character such an innocence.
One of my frustrations with this movie is the story could have been powerful. While the Wisemans are experiencing painful acts of racism from their neighbors, they perform acts of racism against their neighbors. The words “those people” often stream from the mouths of the Wiseman parents. David can’t understand why it matters and he just wants to play cricket. David is the white background to which, each shade of gray is compared. His ignorance to race relations, history or religion shows the adults’ intolerance with blinding clarity. I think we need more stories about how “minorities” discriminate against each other because it opens a door to a truth that people have been ignoring for years. Racism is not a white versus minority thing. Racism can be committed by people who have been victims of it, it lives on through those who were oppressed and may be more than just a social circumstance.
Wondrous Oblivion made me feel like the mother a genius who became a drug addict. It had all the elements of success and yet failed dreadfully. If you have a high tolerance for boredom or a very long attention span, Wondrous Oblivion may be the movie for you.