Latest Movie Reviews
Wonderful World: quiet but powerful
December 13, 2009
Matthew Broderick brings it home here as the quiet and pessimistic former children's singer aptly named Ben Singer. He has given up on life, yet a small miracle gives him the push to turn it around. I was trying to figure out what role it reminded me of and it was the sarcasm I saw Broderick carry on in "Election" that "Wonderful World" comes so close to. This is a quiet movie that not everyone will understand but the quiet emotion and some blatant injustice will definitely move many. The beautiful friendship Ben Singer develops with his Senegalese roommate and the love story with the roommate's sister is the the sprinkle of cinnamon that makes this latte better. Will you go on this wild ride of persistent pessimism and lost causes or will you drop off mid-movie? I say it's worth your time. The ambiguity of the ending is enough.
So let's start with Ben Singer (Matthew Broderick). Things have not been going exactly his way. He is divorced from his wife who is now living in a mansion with some director of acquisitions while Ben is living with a roommate in a tiny 1-bedroom apartment. His tween daughter is a sweet child but has a lot of issues and questions she needs the father figure for (that he is obviously not since he has issues of his own). His former brilliant career of a children's singer is now history, since the latest album was too quiet for the record company to promote, so he gives up on that and starts a tedious job of a proofreader that is cut short with a quick notice despite his good excuse and 7 years with the company. And did I mention he smokes pot every day?
It seems that the only bright light in his life is his wise and happy-seeming rommate Ibu (Michael K. Williams). Their nightly chess games and discussions probably help both men feel better about themselves. Ibu misses his sister who is far away in Senegal and he is also suffering from an active diabetes. One day his sugar spikes and he is rushed to the emergency room. Amazingly the story of how he gets there is an amusing moment in the film taking Ben to court. Ben sues the city for "depraved indifference". I will not divulge more, so you can enjoy watching in the movie, but I will say that John Hambrick is spot-on as Judge Raines. You can almost taste the idealism in the script from Josh Goldin who also directed this movie. I give him credit for keeping it short. I find that being succinct is quiet a gift in filmmaking. In this movie, Josh circles around the point of social injustice and how good people react to it emotionally while others have complete disregard for other's feelings.
While Ibu is in the hospital, Ben meets Khadi (Sanaa Lathan) who comes to visit her brother Ibu. Her beauty and joie-de-vivre electrify Ben's hopes. Their brief romance sort of wakes him up from his pessimistic coma while his friend Ibu comes out of his real one. There is a fleeting moment when Ben is happy, with his girlfriend, his daughter, and his friends at work. Then, things fall apart. He accuses Khadi of romancing him for a green card, thinks his friend is using him and is very negative around his daughter. Nothing goes according to any plan in his life. He is often visited by "The Man" played by Philip Baker Hall who is questioning his beliefs as well, so there is only a miracle that could save him. Sadly, this miracle is the loss of his friend Ibu, who, released early from the hospital (Medicare won't pay), is back home only to die a day later. Before he dies, Ibu plays their usual nightly game of chess where he reveals that he is ecstatic to be back to life from the coma and enjoying every minute of it. Somehow the message resonates with Ben. He travels to Africa to accompany Ibu's remains back home. There he sees Khadi again and has his opportunity to ask for forgiveness only to hear that she is happy to stay there. He is still desolate when it starts raining and it rains... fish. Suddenly Ben begins to hear the music in the sounds of nature and he is back to life and back to music. And since music can instill hope in anyone, he is now a happy guy.
