Next Stop Wonderland

1998 "Romance Is Her Destination."
6.6| 1h36m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 August 1998 Released
Producted By: Miramax
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A lighthearted story about a man and a woman who seem destined to be together... and the hilarious chain of accidents that seem determined to keep them apart!

Genre

Drama, Comedy, Romance

Watch Online

Next Stop Wonderland (1998) is now streaming with subscription on Starz

Director

Brad Anderson

Production Companies

Miramax

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Next Stop Wonderland Audience Reviews

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
ShempMyMcMalley (Spoilers) The best way to classify this film would be to say that it is an indie romantic comedy. Going into it, you already know who will end up with whom, as they encounter each other in a multitude of ways, as if fate is knocking on their respective doors. There is a lighthearted theme throughout of destiny versus random events, but that is just part of this talky, at times seriocomic and sardonic, and other times genuinely affecting and somewhat enlightening film. Furthermore, it doesn't matter that you know they will end up together; this is about THAT journey, about fish in sea, or singles in bars, and the painstaking, embarrassing and asinine things we'll do to seek that proverbial 'one' out. It is replete in imagery as well, half the time the characters are in what seems to be The New England Aquarium, including a little side story with a blowfish. Philip Seymour Hoffman is hilarious as Erin's activist ex-boyfriend, lost in his own little idealistic world too. However, in the end, boy meets girl, and they wander from Wonderland Station.
fwomp Hope Davis has become what I like to call a hidden success. Her movies don't make a gazillion dollars at the box office and you'd probably hardly notice her if she passed you on the street. But what she does — and does well — is create lovable and memorable characters on celluloid. Most recently she was paired with Greg Kinnear in THE MATADOR, a role in which her underused talents still shone brightly with every scene she appeared.I decided to watch NEXT STOP WONDERLAND for the sole purpose of checking to see how well Mrs. Davis stood as an actress in a starring role. I wasn't disappointed.The story is that of a nurse named Erin (Davis) who comes home one day to find her boyfriend, Sean (Philip Seymour Hoffman, CAPOTE) moving out. Angry and spiteful, Erin quickly decides that being alone is okay. In fact, she firmly entrenches the philosophy of aloneness within herself ...until...Erin's domineering mother, Piper (Holland Taylor, THE TRUMAN SHOW), discovers her daughter's recent break-up and places a personals ad in the newspaper for her. Initially upset by this, Erin eventually decides to take on the task of dismissing all of the loathsome men who try to court her. The comedy here is striking and philosophical as the men do whatever they can to get into her pants only to be rebuffed by Erin's formidable intellect.On the other side of Boston (where this story takes place) we find Alan Monteiro (Alan Gelfant, TURN OF FAITH), a plumber turned marine biologist who volunteers at the local aquarium. He's struggling with debt, school (still working on his biology degree), and an aggressive younger classman who's infatuated with him. Strangely enough, too, is the fact that his brother is one of the guy's trying to bed Erin via the personals ad.As Erin and Alan mingle within their own circles, they come close to orbiting one another but never quite make contact. Brief glances, telephone calls that pass them by, invitations to the same restaurant parties, the two seemed destined to fall into one another's arms ...yet these encounters slip past. It's wonderfully frustrating to watch, and these "almost encounters" are never forced.But in the end, director Brad Anderson doesn't let us down. Serendipity intervenes and the two strangers end up hugging one another on a transit train after a strange set of circumstances pulls them together.Romantic comedies are okay if done right. You know the type that kind of make you feel, eh, just okay; You've Got Mail, Pretty Woman, Sleepless In Seattle. But this flick gives you more for less. Made as an independent film on a $1 million budget, Hope Davis' excellent acting and the perfect script make for some thought-provoking and downright funny moments. While those other RomComs I mentioned have a basic "feel-good" to them, NEXT STOP WONDERLAND has much more. The philosophy, romance, and comedy all build to a very satisfying conclusion and one that will invite discussions about the probabilities of fate versus happenstance.
noralee "Next Stop Wonderland" was an absolutely wonderful romantic comedy. It right away became one of my favorite of the genre of magic realism bringing lovers together genre. It helps to like the New England Aquarium and Boston (the title is a pun on a transit stop) - hey who doesn't.Hope Davis was wonderful in "Daytrippers" and she shines here. It's just a matter of time until she gets cast as the sister to Lisa Kudrow in a movie.Terrific use of lovely Brazilian music all through. (originally written 4/11/1999)
jpschapira One of my life objectives is to watch every single movie with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it. Since I saw him in a movie I've said I never finished watching ("State and Main"), I have been in love with his way of working; his body language and mostly his voice. While I may sound exaggerated, it's something I'm trying to do, and it gets me to peculiar places; like "Next Stop Wonderland".Hoffman is not an important player in the film, even when he appears at the beginning. As Sean, he is dumping his girlfriend, Erin (Hope Davis), the most important player in the film. How the filmmakers have created Erin is remarkable. It had been a long time since I've seen a well-rounded character like this one. She's eccentric, tough, and now extremely depressed as abandoned by the man she loves. She spends her lonely days reading random phrases in a book written by her father. She loves that.However, her elegant mother Piper (Holland Taylor) puts an ad in the newspaper, proposing a single, outgoing, charming and likable woman looking for a couple. "That's not me mom…That's you!", Erin tells her mother gently. Now Erin finds herself with calls and messages from men whose ages start in 30 and end in 50; no advices from her gay friends.Continuing, Erin encounters different guys in one bar, and they try to win her with metaphoric phrases, without knowing the authors she knows by heart; cultured comments she knows are clichéd, and in one case sweet talking that ends up in a wedding ring falling out of a wallet. This scene shows the comedic talent of director Brad Anderson, and his writing collaborator Lyn Vaus. They also show other talents, like the dramatic one, as they keep their characters realistic enough so we understand how they feel when things occur to them.Some guys are making a bet to win Erin. One of them is Alan's (Alan Gelfant) brother. Although this seems like the other side of the world, it's in the same city where this Alan works in the aquarium as he studies to become wiser about that. He's already an old man, but is cultured as no one around him, and passionate about what he does (kind of like Erin, right?). Even when Erin and Alan are so similar; each of them doesn't know the other exists. They have crossed sometimes probably, but while Alan experiences a relationship with a younger girl that claims to love him, Erin is approached by every old guy in a bar and almost conquered by a Brazilian "Latin lover"…But it doesn't seem right.Brad Anderson loves his characters and when his camera moves fast at times and slowly at others, we sense he cares about his actors work. That's why Hope Davis shines in this role, which is comedic and different to what we usually get from her. Besides, she got into the park, and so did Alan Gelfant, who talks and looks like a young Sylvester Stallone but with more comedic gifts than the latter would ever dream of.Don't bother yourself asking if these two characters belong together because thy do. But at 100 minutes of film, Brad Anderson stops in Wonderland and encounters the leads. But he is so original and so far away from typical film-making that he won't give you what you're expecting for, like everyone does. He will leave it to your imagination.