retro movie review: Wonderful World

Wonderful World isn't a Great Movie -- it's too unambitious for that -- but it is a very good movie, and a pleasant surprise.

It is, however, easy to understand not only why it didn't do well at the box office, but also why it was immediately and completely forgotten after its release.  There are no explosions, fart jokes, wacky sidekicks, or superheroes.  No special effects sequences or chase scenes.  There is a movie star in the lead, but he disappears so completely into the role that you don't think of him as a star, which, as was the filmmaker's intention, diminishes his glamor.  The lead character is a challenge to like; he's exceedingly cynical, and occasionally rude both to those who deserve it and those who don't -- and yet not cynical and rude in a fun, showy, movie-star way, such as, say, Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets.  No, Ben Singer is more of a quiet schlub, and when he does open his mouth, those around him often wish he was even quieter.  As performed by Matthew Broderick and written by Joshua Goldin, Ben is an extremely convincing everyman.  He may be a purely fictional movie character, but he feels more like a real person.

I said before that Ben's cynicism is extreme, and I meant it.  When he hallucinates from smoking too much weed, he imagines conversations with the Man (as in "workin' for the"), a business-suit attired gentleman who is played by Philip Baker Hall with a mixture of amusement and sincerity, and who lectures Ben about the all-important bottom line.  ("The bottom line," Ben explains to a foreigner, "is the fictional standard people use to justify themselves when they're about to do something immoral.")

That's not to say that Ben doesn't have his good points.  Heck, his flaws are so prominent that without the redeeming features Goldin gives him, the character would be unbearable.  But among Ben's good qualities is an obvious love (friend-love, not romantic love!) for his only friend, Ibou.  Ben and Ibou share a one-room apartment, their only privacy provided by a homemade curtain dividing the room down the center.

The story is set in motion when, one day, Ibou suddenly collapses into a diabetic coma, causing a crisis that forces Ben's better nature to emerge almost despite himself.  Ibou's sister, Khadi, arrives from Senegal to be near Ibou's bedside, and, perhaps because she cannot afford a hotel, or perhaps just because Ben is more in need of human companionship than he's willing to admit, she ends up temporarily taking up residence on Ibou's side of the apartment.

Wonderful World is the story of how first Ibou and then Khadi inspire Ben to re-think his cynical way of looking at the world.  Director/ screenwriter Josh Goldin never goes so far as to argue that Ben's cynicism is misplaced, and there are several scenes that in fact argue in favor of that cynicism, illustrating that the world can indeed be a cruel and unfair place.  But Ibou points out to Ben that there are also joys to behold, even joy in things that we often take for granted, even, if you know how to look at it, joy in things that we would otherwise find annoying.  Through Ibou and Khadi, Goldin argues that despite its frequent cruelties and injustices, the lives we live do take place in a wonderful world.

Again, it's worth emphasizing that Goldin doesn't argue that Ben's cynicism is right or wrong.  But there's a definite dichotomy in the world, reflected in each of us.  Several times throughout the film, Ibou, both accurately and affectionately, refers to Ben as "the Angry Man."  At the end of the movie, we learn Ibou's secret other nickname for Ben, and while I will not dream of revealing it (hint: it's definitely not "the Happy Man"), the two nicknames do speak volumes about Ben's character, and about the film itself.  This is a very thoughtful, and very good movie.  You probably haven't heard of it.  But it's worth seeing.